Office leasing activity during 2019 in Westchester County rose about 8.4% over the level seen in 2018, while dropping about 15% in Fairfield County, according to the fourth-quarter Westchester and Fairfield Office Market Reports issued by real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield.
Cushman & Wakefield said that new transactions in Fairfield accounted for about 2.2 million square feet of leasing activity compared with 2.6 million square feet in 2018. Increases in the office space supply during the year came in at 21.1% in Greenwich and 35% in Norwalk. However, there was an overall vacancy drop in Fairfield County from 31.8% in 2018 to 28.4% in 2019.
The largest new leases for office space in Fairfield during the fourth quarter included WWE”™s lease of 415,266 square feet at 677 Washington Blvd. in Stamford, ASML”™s lease of 98,907 square feet at 50 Danbury Road in Wilton and the 58,566 square feet Sema4 added at 333 Ludlow St. in Stamford.
In Westchester, Cushman & Wakefield said that significant portions of the new leasing activity took place in two submarkets: East I-287 and West I-287. The East I-287 submarket accounted for 36.3% of Westchester demand in 2019 while West I-287 accounted for nearly 30% of the demand. Downtown White Plains showed a drop of 10.1% in new transactions from 2018, with 217,584 square feet leased in 2019.
The three largest leasing transactions in Westchester during the fourth quarter of 2019 were UnitedHealth Group”™s lease at 1311 Mamaroneck Ave. in White Plains for 63,575 square feet, a lease for 26,139 square feet at 500 Summit Lake Drive in Valhalla taken by professional services firm WSP and POP Displays”™ lease at 1 International Drive in Rye Brook for 25,851 square feet.
C&W”™s report showed an increase in vacancies in the White Plains Central Business District submarket to 19.3%, while vacancies in the West I-287 submarket fell from 2018”™s level by 23.8%.
Overall net absorption in Westchester remained positive in 2019 to the tune of 53,605 square feet.
Average pricing throughout Westchester ended the year at $28.76 per square foot, an increase of $1.17 per square foot over 2018. In Fairfield, average rents declined by $0.95 in 2019 for an average of $31.52 per square foot.
C&W said the four key sales transactions in Westchester for 2019 were: the purchase of the former College of New Rochelle property at 29 Castle Place by The Masonic Hall & Asylum Fund for $32 million or $75 per square foot; the sale of 100 Manhattanville Road in Purchase by Caceis to the RPW Group for $36.3 million or $124 per square foot; the sale of Empire Casino and Yonkers Raceway by Yonkers Racing Corporation to MGM Resorts International for $850 million or $4,600 per square foot; and the sale of 200 White Plains Road in Tarrytown by Barings to the Highstone Equity Group for $10.3 million or $59 per square foot.
C&W said the key sales transactions in Fairfield during 2019 were: the sale of 600 Washington Blvd. in Stamford by the Royal Bank of Scotland to Rubenstein Partners for $163 million or $362 per square foot; the sale of 1266 E. Main St. in Stamford by Keystone Property to Twenty Lake Holdings for $15.2 million or $84 per square foot; and the sale of 1010 Washington Blvd. in Stamford by SL Green to New England Investment Partners for $23.1 million or $161 per square foot.
The C&W report said that Westchester County had a total inventory of 23,572,384 square feet of office space while Fairfield County had 38,837,246 square feet.
C&W noted that Fairfield showed an overall increase in employment with 3,210 jobs added in 2019 while 1,355 jobs were lost in Westchester during the year.
