Park Avenue has always been a Manhattan address associated with prestige for both living and working. Television’s odd couple, Felix and Oscar, lived at 1049 Park Avenue and as a kid I always thought how cool it would be to have an apartment there. Since I started working on Park Avenue a few years ago, it has quickly become my favorite of all the avenues I’ve commuted to. So, with Park Avenue historically thought of as a luxurious address, why does the submarket have the third highest availability rate out of the nine Midtown submarkets?
There are 34 buildings within the Park Avenue submarket, and at 11.3 percent, only the Fifth/Madison and Grand Central submarkets have more availability. Looking more closely, we see that 11 properties have more than 100,000 square feet available and are causing the Park Avenue submarket’s availability rate to remain high. Dividing this submarket creates its own “odd couple,” as these 11 buildings have an (untidy) Oscar Madison-like availability rate of 20 percent, compared to the remaining 23 properties that have a (neat) Felix Unger availability of only 4.1 percent.
Of those 11 buildings, four have a 35 percent availability rate or higher, which has inflated the statistics. In addition, within five of the buildings, there are seven blocks of contiguous space greater than 100,000 square feet, with two each at 280 Park Avenue and 237 Park Avenue.
Despite the 11 buildings having a significantly higher availability rate, the average asking rent of these properties is $95.70 per square foot. Meanwhile, the remaining 23 properties have an average asking rent that is 7.1 percent lower, at $89.34 per square foot.
Although these 11 buildings may seem like they are holding this submarket back, they create prime opportunities for any firm that wants to work within the elite Park Avenue corridor.
