Lower Manhattan Real Estate Takes a Hit

It would be understandable if lower Manhattan simply up and quit. Its status as the center of the financial world and corporate America itself has been on the wane for half a century. Then it was hit with 9/11, a credit crisis that laid Wall Street flat, and a long, brutal recession.

Finally, the real estate market at the southern tip of the island is showing signs of exhaustion. The office vacancy rate has increased to 8.1 percent from 7.7 percent at the end of last year, according to Robert McGrath of CBRE-Econometic Advisors. As 4.4 million square feet of new office space associated with the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site come on line in 2013, the vacancy rate in the city's oldest neighborhood could hit 14 percent, according to Kenneth McCarthy, head of Cushman & Wakefield’s New York research unit. (more)