NYC office construction hits highest level in 25 years 

It’s not just pricey condos breaking records in New York.

Office construction in the city is at its highest level in 25 years, bolstered by increasing employment, consistently low interest rates, and a large supply of shovel-ready sites at the World Trade Center and Hudson Yards, according to figures published by the New York Building Congress.

A total 9.7 million square feet of new office space is slated to be built across 19 new buildings in Manhattan by 2016, including 7.4 million square feet combined in Midtown West and at the trade center.

Those numbers put the city on track to create nearly 30 million square feet of new space before 2020, a massive gain from the 22.3 million feet that was created between 2000 and 2009, records show.

“After years of planning and upfront investment, the vision of a new World Trade Center and Hudson Yards are coming to fruition and in a big way,” said building congress president Richard Anderson.

“Even beyond those two mega-projects, it is obvious that the development community is bullish on New York City’s commercial future.”

Most of those new spaces will be in Manhattan, while downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO and Long Island City remain massively underserved as developers opt to build residential as opposed to office projects.

“Despite efforts in recent years to spur office construction in business districts outside Manhattan’s commercial core, Manhattan remains the only truly viable option for most companies,” Anderson said.

The pace of new office construction may be at its greatest level in half a century, but the numbers still don’t measure up to the record-breaking period between 1968 and 1973, when 72 million square feet was delivered, including 10 million feet at the original World Trade Center.

Source:     Daily News