The strong demand for office space in Manhattan in 2017 surprised many experts at the 122nd Real Estate Board of New York Banquet.

“The biggest surprise was its resiliency. You saw 30 million square feet of leases signed. You saw companies come from outside New York, like United Technogies, and just last week Discovery Channel,” said William Rudin, CEO of Rudin Management.

“After so many years of growth after the Financial Crisis… I thought that at this point, nine years into it, that we should be seeing a slowdown. We really didn’t,” said David Brause, president of Brause Realty.

The new office space opening in Manhattan specifically helped attract tenants to the new towers of Midtown West. “There was more than two million square feet of leasing done in 2017, which is an extraordinary, robust level of commitment… truthfully we should not be surprised by the desire to be in new product,” said Bruce Mosler, chairman of global brokerage for Cushman & Wakefield.

Property sales were slower, however. “I focus on multifamily in New York City… The market is going to remain flat and volume is not going to be very large for some time,” said Eric Michael Anton of Marcus & Millichap.

Investors in all types of properties held back from buying. “We’re not spending everything we had in our wallet,” said David Schechtman of Meridian Investment Sales. Last year investors bought far fewer properties compared to earlier in the recovery. “No one was interested… because they knew that prices were too high.”

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