Brooklyn office market still suffering pandemic hangover

Brooklyn’s office market was not immune to the pain inflicted on the sector nationwide in 2022. 

The vacancy rate held mostly steady at about 21 percent last year, but net absorption in the fourth quarter crashed from around 279,500 square feet in 2021, down to 950 square feet at the close of 2022. Though it’s worth bearing in mind that the fourth-quarter does represent a significant recovery from the third quarter’s abysmal net absorption of -473,350 square feet.

61% Year-over-year drop in Q4 leasing activity from 2021 to 2022

Leasing activity also plummeted in the last quarter of 2022 versus the same period in 2021, dropping by two thirds from 472,300 square feet to just 183,000 square feet. 

The biggest office lease signed in Brooklyn last year was a renewal by the city’s Department of Finance for 135,700 square feet at 147 41st Street. The largest new lease was for nutritional supplement company Care/of, which took 79,500-square-foot space at 850 3rd Avenue. 

99.66% Year-over-year drop in Q4 net absorption from 2021 to 2022

There has only been one major relocation from Manhattan to Brooklyn since 2020 — the New York Embroidery Studio’s move early last year to a 79,300-square-foot space at 140 58th Street in the Brooklyn Army Terminal. Before that, the most recent big move was when Union Square Events took 70,000 square feet of space at 147 41st Street at the end of 2020.