Westchester County Business Journal 3Q office vacancies up in Westchester
3Q office vacancies up in Westchester
Continued job losses in Westchester County in the recession were reflected in third-quarter commercial office leasing here, which was down nearly 63 percent in class-A buildings from a year ago and dipped nearly 37 percent from the second quarter this year.
Cushman and Wakefield Inc. reported a third-quarter overall vacancy rate of 20.5 percent in class-A buildings, only slightly changed from the second quarter’s 20.6 percent rate. Overall vacancies across the county were up 2.2 percent from the third quarter of 2008.
The White Plains central business district had the highest third-quarter class-A vacancy rate in the county at 24.4 percent, followed by the city’s downtown periphery, with a 23.6 percent class-A vacancy rate. The county’s northern office market had the lowest class-A vacancies at 14.5 percent, Cushman and Wakefield reported.
Brokers at CB Richard Ellis reported a third-quarter availability rate of 18.6 percent at class-A buildings in the county and 13.5 percent availability rate for class-B properties.
The average third-quarter rent in the county for class-A space was $27.64 per square foot and $23.51 for class-B space, CB Richard Ellis reported.
Cushman & Wakefield reported an overall average rent of $30.94 per square foot for class-A space in the county and $27.63 for class-B space in the third quarter. In the White Plains central business district, asking rents for direct leases averaged $32.35 per square foot in the third quarter, down more than $2 per square foot from a year ago.
Although landlords’ asking rents are stabilizing, taking rents have dipped by as much as 15 percent to 30 percent in the past 18 months and concessions to tenants, such as free rent, continue to increase, Cushman and Wakefield officials said.
Some of the county’s top office deals to date in 2009 were struck in the third quarter. In the largest, Long-Island-based OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. in July announced plans to relocate its headquarters and consolidate operations in the six-building, 390,000-square-foot Ardsley Park Science and Technology Center at 410-469 Saw Mill River Road, for which the biotech company paid $27 million to Purdue Pharma, or $69 per square foot. At 399 Knollwood Road, a 152,030-square-foot office building in White Plains, RPW Group paid $20.5 million, or $140 per square foot, to reacquire the class-A property from S.L. Green Realty Corp.
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