Business Is Booming In Lower Manhattan, Downtown Alliance Reports

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — Lower Manhattan's growth continued last year as the overall vacancy rate for office space dropped to 10.8 percent, according to a new report from the Downtown Alliance. It was the biggest quarterly drop since 2014, the report said.

Lower Manhattan finished 2018 with the highest level of commercial leasing activity since the second quarter of 2011, according to the report, with 5.5 million square feet of commercial leasing space. Last year shaped up to have the most leasing activity since 2014, according to the report.

"It was an incredible year in Lower Manhattan," Downtown Alliance President Jessica Lappin said in a statement. Lappin applauded high-profile companies moving to Lower Manhattan — such as McKinsey, Casper and Nike.

Twenty-six companies with more than 25,000 square feet of office space relocated to Lower Manhattan last year across eight industries, the report said. About a third of those companies were in retail trade, and a quarter were in technology, advertising, media and information.

"It's clear that this neighborhood has arrived as a place where companies across all industries want to be located," Lappin said.

In 2018, over 1,300 residential units in six buildings opened, the report found. Another 2,900 units in 19 buildings are in the works.

Some 95 retailers opened in Lower Manhattan in 2017.

Four new hotels opened in 2018 with 700 hotel rooms, which brought Lower Manhattan's hotel stock to 7,600 rooms in 35 hotels. Twelve more hotels are on the way, according to the report.

Last year, 3 World Trade Center opened adding some 2.5 million square feet of office space. The Pier 17 rooftop concert venue also opened last summer.

This type of economic activity has recently made Larry Silverstein, head of Silverstein Properties, confident he can start building 2 World Trade Center before signing an anchor tenant. Tower 2, the final in the WTC campus, would be 80-stories high with another 2.8 million square feet of office rental space.

Read the full report here.

Lead image credit: Caroline Spivack/Patch Image caption: A scenic view of the New York City skyline taken from Lower Manhattan.