Midtown Manhattan Office Leasing Reaches 12-Year High, CBRE Says

(Bloomberg) -- Office tenants leased the most space in midtown Manhattan this year since 2006, with deals by Evercore Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. leading the way.

Through the third quarter, rental agreements were signed for 13.9 million square feet (1.3 million square meters), according to a report by CBRE Group Inc. That was the most for the district since the first nine months of 2006, when leases totaled 15.6 million square feet. Financial companies accounted for 36 percent of leasing in Midtown, followed by law firms and legal services, with 14 percent.

Evercore had one of the third quarter’s largest deals, renewing and expanding its space at 55 E. 52nd St. to 343,606 square feet. JPMorgan Chase followed, with its 270,536-square-foot renewal at 237 Park Ave., CBRE said. Flexible-space providers also made their mark. WeWork Cos. rival Convene had Midtown’s fifth-biggest lease, taking 116,430 square feet at 530 Fifth Ave.

During the third quarter, 4.4 million square feet in deals were signed in Midtown -- which stretches from the Hudson to East rivers and, roughly, from Central Park to as far south as Penn Station and Hudson Yards on the west side and 35th Street on the east side. The average asking rent in the district was $78.41 a square foot, up 2 percent from the previous quarter but down 3 percent from a year earlier.

To contact the reporter on this story: Justina Vasquez in New York at jvasquez57@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Debarati Roy at droy5@bloomberg.net, Christine Maurus

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