Manhattan’s Office Availability Rate Increases for First Time in Two Years
Total office leasing activity for February was down 39.5 percent from January and 29.7 percent lower than in February 2025
By Amanda Schiavo March 2, 2026 12:40 pm
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In a departure from several consecutive quarters of increased office leasing and decreased availability rates, Manhattan’s office market saw a switchup in activity in February, according to the latest monthly snapshot from Colliers.
Manhattan’s total office leasing activity for February — 2.23 million square feet — was down 39.5 percent from January and was 29.7 percent lower than in February 2025, Colliers found. The demand in February was also 19 percent below the 10-year monthly average.
Plus, the availability rate for office space in Manhattan grew for the first time in two years — by 0.1 percent monthly to 13.6 percent, with 200,000 square feet of negative absorption. Availability is a measure of space that is currently available or will soon become available.
“With supply outpacing demand in February, Manhattan’s availability rate increased for the first time in two years,” Franklin Wallach, executive managing director of research and business development for Colliers in New York, said in a statement.
Yet, while overall availability in Manhattan ticked up a bit from January to February, the availability rate in Lower Manhattan and Midtown South remained the same month-over-month, at 13.3 percent in Midtown South and 16.3 percent in Lower Manhattan.
“There were still silver linings in February that illustrated Manhattan’s continued recovery as the availability rate remained stable in Midtown South and Downtown,” Wallach added. “All three Manhattan markets recorded higher asking rents — with Manhattan’s average at the highest since August 2020 — and the overall available supply was reduced by more than 25 percent since February 2024.”
The top five lease transactions signed in February were for Fanatics, which took 210,000 square feet at 95 Morton Street; Latham & Watkins, which expanded to 251,354 square feet at 1285 Avenue of the Americas; the New York City District Council of Carpenters Benefit Funds, which expanded by 86,945 square feet at 395 Hudson Street; cloud computing company Snowflake, which took 82,505 square feet at 7 Times Square; and Datasite, which signed a lease for 75,836 square feet at 3 Columbus Circle.
Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.
