NEW YORK CITY-Despite a slight decline from the previous quarter, the Manhattan office market is still showing strength, with new leasing activity accounting for 6.4 million square feet across the borough, Cushman & Wakefield officials said at a press briefing on Tuesday morning. A total of 24.1 million square feet of new leases were signed in the first nine months of 2011, with September marking the twelfth consecutive month of leasing activity exceeding two million square feet in Manhattan over the last three quarters.

“We’ve had the best year here on a quarterly basis back to about 11 years,” said Joseph R. Harbert, CEO of the New York Metro Region for C&W, explaining that Q3 was the best third quarter since 1998. Year-over-year, leasing activity went up 28% from the 18.8 million square feet signed in the first nine months of 2010. “We’ve done in nine months what an average year had been, and remember this includes an up market, a recession, another up market, another recession and now back to normal,” he added.

Across the city, the top leases of the quarter included a 271,247-square-foot lease to Pearson Plc at 330 Hudson St., a 267,647 square-foot lease to Oppenheimer & Co. at 85 Broad St., a 152,000-square-foot lease to Open Society Foundations at 1770 Broadway, a 125,811-square-foot lease to MSCI Inc. at Seven World Trade Center and a 112,941-square-foot renewal at 555 West 57^th St. to Continuum Health Partners.