Manhattan Office Vacancies Reach Five Year High

[Purveyor]

y David M. Levitt

Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Manhattan’s third-quarter office vacancy rate hit a five-year high as unemployment rose and companies cut space in the recession.

The rate rose to 11.1 percent, the highest since the third quarter of 2004, New York-based broker Cushman & Wakefield said in a statement today. Rents fell 5.2 percent from the second quarter to $57.08 a square foot and were down 22 percent from a year earlier.

Demand for offices in the largest and most expensive office market in the U.S. has falling as the city’s unemployment rate jumped to 10.3 percent last month, the highest since 1993. Financial companies, the biggest private office tenants in Manhattan, have cut 40,300 jobs since August 2008.

Vacancies increased even as leasing picked up and the amount of space available for sublease fell for the first time in five quarters, Cushman said.

About 4.9 million square feet (455,000 square meters) were leased in the third quarter, 50 percent more than in the second quarter and the most since the second quarter of last year, the last full quarter since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy.

Sublease space declined to 11.1 million square feet from 11.4 million at mid-year, the first drop since the end of 2007, Cushman said.

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BLOOMBERG: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=alMmeCY6a7Ho

[imdjh]

1. Manhattan office vacancies fuckin' reach five year high.

It's more amusing that way.