Midtown South Fares Best as Manhattan Office Leasing Ebbs in May
Midtown South fared best and Midtown worst in office leasing for May, Colliers reported. At 2.45 million square feet for the month, Manhattan’s monthly leasing activity decreased by 8.2% since April. However, demand grew by 60.0% year-over-year.
Although May’s leasing velocity surpassed the 2020 (1.58 million square feet) and 2021 (2.08 million square feet) average monthly volume, it was nearly one-third below the 2019 pre-pandemic average (3.58 million square feet), said Colliers.
HSBC’s 264,000-square-foot new lease at 66 Hudson Blvd. and Macquarie’s 222,000-square-foot new lease at 660 Fifth Ave. were the largest transactions in Manhattan during the month of May.
Manhattan’s availability rate tightened by 0.1 percentage points to 17.2% while absorption was positive 0.33 million square feet, reported Colliers. Despite the tighter supply in May, overall availability grew by 72.5% since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020 to 92.91 million square feet.
- ◦Lease
