NEW YORK CITY-Cushman & Wakefield released second quarter 2011 statistics for the Manhattan commercial real estate market Tuesday morning and news, generally, was positive. This, as Massey Knakal reported a wealth of transactions over $100 million for the midyear period ended June 30, 2011 at a press briefing.

So far this year, according to data from C&W, 17.6 million square feet of new leases have been signed--the highest total for a six-month period in over a decade. With little new construction and few large blocks of space available, it also remains a landlord’s market, which leaves one wondering why average asking rents have increased so little. At midyear, overall asking rents in Manhattan are up just 2.2%, compared to midyear 2010.

“Overall, this is a little bit surprising that the rents haven’t risen higher, given the level of activity that we’ve seen,” C&W COO for the New York Metro Region Joseph Harbert said. “The overall rental change in the market is 2.7%--it’s actually 3.3% since the trough in the market in May of 2010.”