Manhattan Office Leasing Plummets 12.4% in November: Report

While Manhattan’s office market saw strong leasing activity in October, it seems like deal-making may have fallen short in November.

After boasting 3.9 million square feet of new leasing deals in October, Manhattan saw only 3.4 million square feet leased last month, representing a month-to-month decline of 12.4 percent, according to a monthly report from Colliers.

It’s still an increase from the 1.9 million square feet of office space leased in November 2023, and office availability rates in Manhattan remained low at 16.7 percent last month, compared to 16.8 percent in October, the report found.

“Although Manhattan’s leasing volume decreased notably since the prior month, the office demand in November was well ahead of the 10-year monthly average (2.68 million square feet),” Franklin Wallach, head of research at Colliers (CIGI), said in a statement to Commercial Observer.

“Additionally, with five consecutive months of positive absorption and availability at its lowest level in more than two years, the market in November was a snapshot of an ongoing trend in 2024 as demand has continuously outpaced supply,” Wallach said.

Plus, Manhattan — especially Midtown — is still on track to have the “strongest full year of leasing volume since 2019,” according to Colliers. Nearly 2 million square feet of office space was leased in Midtown alone in November, the report found.

Wallach attributed November’s decline in leasing volume to “sizable” deals signed in October, including Bloomberg’s major renewal and expansion to 924,876 square feet at SL Green Realty’s 919 Third Avenue and Blue Owl Capital’s expansion to 238,673 square feet at RFR Holding’s Seagram Building.

Top leasing transactions in November included law firm Ropes & Gray’s 535,000-square-foot deal at RXR’s 1285 Avenue of the Americas and Apple’s expansion to 460,000 square feet at Penn 11, as CO previously reported.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.