News
C&W on 2Q; LAST NIGHT WITH YREPNY
July 15, 2009
| You don’t hear the term “good month” these days, but Cushman & Wakefield actually had some positivity to share during its quarterly market overview at Michael’s Restaurant yesterday. Whether June was an anomaly or inflection, however, is yet to be seen. |
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| NY Metro COO Joe Harbert, with economic guru Ken McCarthy, tells us that 2Q was much stronger than 1Q, with 1.4M SF signed and no vacancy increases last month. In 1Q, only four deals were signed, all in Downtown; but 2Q saw eight, with six in Midtown.Larger deals are also starting to happen again. Ken adds that last week was the first since January that unemployment claims dropped under 600k. It’s still high, but he says we’ll need to drop to 400k before we see growth again. Job loss projections are lower, and NYC’s percentage is still lower than the nation. |
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| President of global client development, Arthur Mirante, with retail leasing EVP Joanne Podell. Primary markets are seeing promising retail activity and even some competition for space, Joanne tells us. Secondary markets are seeing more difficulty, but more landlords are offering pushbacks, like short-term lease extensions, to help tenants and keep space occupied. Overall, the sector did not experience much change from the last quarter. |
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| There were even visitors from the ‘burbs, including Long Island’s Jim Loughlin and Bob Sheehy and Westchester/Fairfield’s Jim Fagan(not pictured). They tell us that activity on the island has been slow, but there was a little pickup in 2Q. The last major deal, Sysco’s industrial purchase of the 526k-SF 199 Lowell Ave. in Central Islip, was announced in May. Space has seen a 7% drop as pressure from sublets forces owners to reprice. Fairfield’s vacancy is up by 4% and rental rates down 20%-30% from highs, but there is activity as tenants flee to quality. |
