Stat of the Week: 6.6 Runs

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For only the third time in my life, a New York Mets manager is coaching the National League All-Star team. So, in honor of this epic Mets event—yes, I know Yankee fans take this for granted—it’s time for a Major League Baseball All-Star game-themed Stat of the Week.

Rather than pitting the American League against the National League, this All-Star game will be Class A versus Class B statistics throughout the market and based on how things have fared through the first half of the year.

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The first two innings will be based off of the percent change in Midtown direct average asking rents. Midtown Class A direct asking rents ended 2015 at $85.25 per square foot and increased 2.8 percent to $87.63 through mid-year 2016. Midtown Class B direct asking rents increased as well, but only 0.8 percent to $61.98 per square foot.

The next two innings are based off of Midtown South’s vacancy rate percentage point change. Class A vacancy increased 0.5 percentage points to 4.5 percent, while Class B vacancy decreased 0.2 percentage points to 6.2 percent. So, for those of you keeping score through the first four innings, the Class A All-Star team has scored 2.3 runs to the Class B team, which only scored 1 run.

Downtown is up next, and this inning is based off of the percent change in overall average asking rents. Class A overall average asking rents declined 1.5 percent since 2015 to $62.24 per square foot, thereby knocking some runs off of the scoreboard for the Class A team. Class B had a strong inning, with an increase of 2.4 percent through mid-year 2016 to $50.55 per square foot.

Headed into the last inning, these runs will be based on new leasing activity through mid-year 2016 as a percentage for Manhattan Class A and Class B total inventory. More than 8.8 million square feet of new leases were completed for Manhattan Class A, which accounts for 3.5 percent of the Class A inventory. Class B had 3.1 million square feet of new leases signed this year, which accounts for 3.2 percent of the Class B inventory.

So, the final score tallies to 4.3 runs for Class A versus 6.6 for Class B, making Class B this year’s mid-year All-Star winner!