“After years of planning and upfront investment, the vision of a new World Trade Center and Hudson Yards are coming to fruition and in a big way. Even beyond those two mega-projects, it is obvious that the development community is bullish on New York City's commercial future,” says New York Building Congress president Richard T. Anderson. “At the same time, we are not seeing the sort of irrational exuberance that led to a wave of speculative projects and gluts in the office market during periods of the 20th century.”

Owners and office tenants are ramping up their investments in alterations and renovations to their existing office space. According to a Building Congress analysis of Dodge data, alternation and renovation projects in office buildings in New York City totaled $2.7 billion in 2014, up from $2.2 billion in 2013 and $1.3 billion in 2012. So far in the first six months of 2015, $1.7 billion worth of alternation and renovation projects were started, up from $1.2 billion in the first six months of 2014 and $833 million in the first half of 2013.

“It appears that owners of existing office properties are upping their games in anticipation of the new wave of modern offices that are coming on line over the next five years,” Anderson adds. “In order to remain competitive, they recognize the need to modernize their existing spaces to make them more efficient, technologically-advanced, and appealing to both traditional and new economy tenants.”

According to the Department of City Planning, New York City currently has an inventory of 463 million square feet of office space. Approximately, 84% (or 390 million square feet) is located in the borough of Manhattan, with 81% of the city's total inventory located south of 60th Street.

The Building Congress' Anderson theorizes that despite the city's best efforts to attract new office construction outside of Manhattan, the borough remains the top spot where most companies will invest.

“It will be interesting to see if neighborhoods such as Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, and Long Island City are able to take advantage of their growing popularity among residents and the trend toward creative workers wanting to work near where they live,” he says.