Office construction activity in New York hits 25-year-high with a total of 9.7 million square feet of new office space to be built across the city.
The boost is attributed to rising employment numbers, along with consistently low interest rates and a large supply of shovel-ready development sites at the Hudson Yards and the World Trade Center, according to a report by the New York Building Congress. The expected 9.7 million square feet of office space will be spread across 19 new buildings in Manhattan. These projects are expected to be completed within 2015 until 2016. Around 7.4 million square feet of the expected office construction will be located in the Midtown West area, including the World Trade Center. The massive wave of office openings will reportedly occur in 2018, wherein a total of six different towers are expected to be "fully or substantially complete."
The Building Congress report also forecasts construction of office spaces between 2010 until 2019 to be around 29.5 million square feet. The report stated that within the period of 2000 and 2009, New York City added 22.3 million square feet of new office spaces. This reportedly replaced the loss of more than 10 million square feet during the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the former World Trade Center.
New York City's The Curbed also took note of a few interesting information that the Building Congress included in its report. The publication's list included the reported 5.4 million square feet of office space expected to be built in 2016 alone. Aside from this, The Curbed also took note of the reported increase in alteration and renovation (A&R) spendings in 2014, wherein A&R projects in office buildings amounted to $2.7 billion.
Meanwhile, in a statement included in the Building Congress report, Richard T. Anderson, president of the Building Congress, said that the last 50 to 60 years in New York City's office construction industry saw some "real peaks and valleys." He added, "We are coming out of a valley, and there is plenty of room for growth."
