Midtown's overall vacancy rate fell to 9.6% in the second quarter from 10.0% in the first quarter of this year. Midtown's mid-year 2014 office vacancy rate was 10.7%. The Class A vacancy rate declined dropped to 10.3% in the second quarter of 2015 from 10.9% the previous quarter.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Nike signed commitments for new product under construction in Midtown, while several other tenants are rumored to be seriously considering Hudson Yards, JLL states in its second quarter report. In the largest lease of the quarter, law firm Skadden announced it would relocate to 538,321 square feet at 1 Manhattan West from 4 Times Square when construction is complete in 2018. Nike will relocate from offices at 111 Eighth Ave. to 147,936 square feet in the mixed-use tower under construction at 855 Ave. of the Americas.

Overall average asking rents in New York rose to $67.63-per-square-foot this quarter, an increase of 1.3% from $66.74-per-square-foot in the first quarter of the year. Year-over-year, the city's overall rates grew 4.7% from $64.57-per-square-foot at midyear 2014. Class A average asking rents grew to $74.73-per-square-foot in the second quarter of 2015, rising 1.1% from $73.90-per-square-foot the previous quarter. Year-over-year, Manhattan's Class A rates rose 4.8% from $71.28-per-square-foot in the second quarter of 2014.

In Midtown South, slower leasing velocity continued through the second quarter despite strong demand and touring activity on the part of creative tenants, JLL reports. No leases were reported in excess of 100,000 square feet in the second quarter. Year-to-date, only one large-block lease has been signed in Midtown South compared to six through the first half of 2014. Although subleases drove leasing activity in the submarket in the first quarter, new deals accounted for the majority of activity in Midtown South at midyear 2015. PayPal's 95,000-square-foot lease at 95 Morton St. to accommodate its recent spin-off as a separate company from eBay was the largest transaction in Midtown South in the second quarter,

Lower Manhattan posted overall lease deal volume of just 1.6 million square feet, which represented the lowest activity recorded over a two-quarter period since the first half of 2009. Twentieth Century Fox / News Corp. signed a letter of intent to relocate from 1211 Ave. of the Americas to anchor the proposed 2 World Trade Center for as much as 1.4 million square feet. Other relocations will likely push leasing volume considerably higher in the coming months, JLL reports. While none of these transactions will match last year's large deals at Brookfield Place, several leases are likely to close in the 75,000- to 200,000-square-foot range by summer's end.

With few new large blocks of available space added to Downtown's inventory in recent months, even the limited leasing activity recorded drove down vacancy rates. Lower Manhattan's overall vacancy rate fell to 11.9% in the second quarter from 12.5% in the first quarter of the year.