Average asking rents have flattened out over the past few months: Class A rents fell two cents to $47.92 per square foot from $47.94 at the end of January. However, Colliers doubts that these rents will hold steady for much longer as prime space continues to be absorbed.
In midtown Manhattan, law firms continued to drive leasing demand. Arnold & Porter, for example, signed a 105,000-square-foot office lease at 399 Park Avenue in February. Financial services firms also chipped in as Citigroup leased 176,000 square feet at 731 Lexington Ave.
This activity helped push average Class A asking rents up from $57.10 per square foot to $57.15 per square foot between the end of January and February.
The largest leasing deal of the month was signed in lower Manhattan, where law firm Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson renewed and expanded for 380,000 square feet at One New York Plaza. Lower Manhattan's Class A vacancy rate improved to 13.2 percent from 13.4 percent in January while the average asking rent fell one dime to $33.56 per square foot.
