The percentage of vacant office space in New York’s City‘s borough of Manhattan reached its highest level since 2000, with 14.9% of all commercial spaces sitting empty in January, Bloomberg reported.
Leases dropped 47% since last January, despite a seven-month decline in rental prices. Manhattan office spaces cost, on average, $73.65 per square foot each month.
When the coronavirus hit the United States, some businesses told employees to work from home.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, both Democrats, then forced most remaining businesses into shutdowns.
Fear surrounding the coronavirus and the economic fallout from the shutdowns caused office vacancies to skyrocket and rental prices to plummet.
Some businesses may never return to in-person office spaces, while other businesses consider a reduction of in-person offices.
Despite the persistently low occupancy rates in Manhattan, new leases surged in January.
Businesses leased 1.9 million square feet of office space in January, the highest number since July 2020 and 20% higher than last year’s monthly average.
The surge came as Democratic politicians decided to lift coronavirus restrictions following their successful efforts to unseat President Donald Trump.
Beam Suntory, a beverage company, leased a 100,000-square-foot building at 11 Madison Ave.
