Real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield says there were modest year-over-year increases in office leasing in both Westchester and Fairfield counties during the second quarter of 2019.
While there was softness in Westchester during the first quarter of the year, Cushman & Wakefield”™s report shows that what happened in the second quarter pushed the result for the first six months of the year to a 37% increase over the comparable period during 2018.
Cushman & Wakefield found that rental pricing in Westchester went up 74 cents per square foot on average over the last 12 months to $28.59. It said Class A space in downtown White Plains was down a bit, dropping 86 cents per foot to an average asking rent of $37.21. Class B office space fell even more, down $1.03 per square foot to $23.55.
The vacancy rate in Westchester at the end of the second quarter was 23.5% while in the White Plains commercial business district it was 17.6%.
Jim Fagan, managing principal of Cushman & Wakefield’s Westchester and Connecticut markets, said, “Office buildings along major transport nodes will continue to drive demand going forward as tenants look to minimize commute times and have better access to labor and is expected to exceed last year levels, albeit by an insubstantial amount.”
As far as Fairfield is concerned, Fagan said, “Demand is anticipated to stay relatively modest over the next six months in Fairfield County, with a possibility of several large and notable transactions occurring later this year.” He did not give details of what those might be. “Vacancy is expected to fall across the county as large corporate tenants begin to migrate into their newly-leased office space, with the largest declines in vacancy occurring in the Stamford submarket.”
The report states that the average asking price for space in Fairfield declined 88 cents per square foot during the 12 months ending June 30 to come in at $31.59. In the Danbury submarket, rents were down $5.55 per square foot to $19.20 on average. That contrasts sharply with Greenwich where rents on average went up by 87 cents per square foot to $52.58. Stamford accounted for 58.1% of the demand for space in Fairfield during the second quarter of 2019.
