6.5 million sf leased since wtc attack?

According to a recent report by Grubb & Ellis, Manhattan's office market experienced a flurry of leasing activity with both tenants and landlords placing available space on the market. In the weeks following the attacks, leasing activity produced a transaction volume of roughly 6.5 million SF leased in New York City and an additional 1.5 million SF in the proximate markets of New Jersey and Connecticut.

Concurrently, 6 million SF of available space was added to the Manhattan office market as tenants placed unused space on the market for sublet and landlords reversed multi-use or other repositioning strategies to offer office space for lease.

The heightened leasing activity resulted in a slightly reduced inventory of vacant space in Manhattan -- 25.08 million SF at the end of September versus 25.9 million at he end of August -- and a massive negative absorption total of 12.4 million SF, due to the loss of occupancy caused by the events of Sept. 11.

Midtown South's vacancy rate was the highest of the three submarkets at 11.0%, while Midtown averaged at 7.1% and Downtown at 9.7%. The overall asking rent for the Manhattan office market was $52.61 per SF in September. Asking rents for the Midtown office market topped out at $60.20 per SF, while the Midtown South and Downtown rents were considerably less at $40.25 and $41.94, respectively.

News in the market during September included: Bank of New York leasing 229,000 SF at 33.0 West 34th St.; Hartford Fire Insurance leasing 145,000 SF at I Park Ave.; SEC leasing 19,045 SF in the Woolworth Building; Oppenheimer leasing 135,427 SF at 498 Seventh Avenue; and CIBC leasing 150,000 SF at 622 Third Ave.