The average asking rent of $56.46 per sf in March slipped to $55.86 in April, the largest one-month decrease since the third quarter of 2000. Class B properties logged the biggest downturn, $1.40 per sf, bringing the weighted average asking rent to $47.67 per sf for these properties. Midtown South suffered the most, with asking rents declining more than $2.30 in overall rates.

Amidst the bad news, however, there were a few bright spots including the 700,000 sf of space pre-leased to Bloomberg at 731 Lexington, Bank of America's leasing of 171,500 sf at 9 West 57th St., Alliance Capital Management's renewal of 79,018 sf at 1345 Sixth Ave. and CMP Media signing for 52,000 sf at 75 Ninth Ave.