A new CB Richard Ellis report shows a marked annual drop-off in Manhattan office leasing from August 2007 through August 2008.
Companies leased 2.29 million square feet of space in August 2007, and 1.06 million last month. The availability and vacancy rates understandably increased over the 12 months from August to August.
Why the drop-off? It doesn't have anything to do with the events the past two weeks in the financial services industry, the biggest leaser of the city's top-flight office space. (It's likely tied to the general decline in the national and local economies, and is also a product of furious office leasing in months past--there's just not that much space left to lease.)
The current Wall Street crisis, however, is likely to further curb the appetite for Manhattan office space. More on what pessimistic brokers have to say.
