CBRE reports Midtown saw a great deal of activity in leases of 50,000 square feet and over. In fact, 63% of the year-to-date leasing activity in Midtown Manhattan has taken place in either newly constructed or substantially renovated properties. Blackrock's deal at 50 Hudson Yards totaled 846,990 square feet, 1199 National Benefit and Pension Funds leased 577,541 square feet at 498 Seventh Ave., and JP Morgan Chase Digital inked an expansion lease for at 5 Manhattan West. Another large tarnation in Midtown was HSBC Bank USA's 547,998-square-foot renewal at 452 Fifth Ave.

Net absorption registered negative 723,000 square feet in Midtown in the second quarter, which was the sixth quarter in the past seven in which absorption has been negative. The availability rate increased by 30 basis points from last quarter to 12.2%. The average asking rent in Midtown at the end of the second quarter stood at $80.54 per-square-foot, which was essentially stable both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year.

Submarkets such as the Penn Station market, home to the Hudson Yards and Manhattan West developments, saw 1.58 million square feet of lease deals in the second quarter, up a whopping 184% over its five-year quarterly average. Meanwhile leasing activity in the Park Avenue, Grand Central and East Side districts underperformed. CBRE's LaRusso states in the Midtown Marketview report the poor performance of those markets “highlights the lack of demand for aging inventory, given that all of these submarkets have a large portion of building stock with an average age of 50 years or older.”

While Midtown enjoyed a wealth of large lease deals, Midtown South suffered from few such transactions in the second quarter, which caused leasing activity to drop well below historical averages to 1.01 million square feet. A bright spot for the market, CBRE states, was strong leasing volume in the 10,000–square-foot to 25,000-square-foot segment. Rents declined 3% quarter-over-quarter to $71.90-per-square-foot due to the removal of premium-priced space in new construction in Chelsea.

Availability declined to 10.7% in Midtown South, but still was 230 basis points above its second quarter 2016 level. The insurance sector accounted for 23% of leasing activity and apparel/retail sales made up 28% of deals in the second quarter in Midtown South. Tech, typically Midtown South's major driver of leasing, accounted for 14% of all activity.

Downtown leasing activity totaled 1.20 million square feet, which was 8% below its five-year quarterly average and a decrease of 36% from the first quarter of this year. The addition of 1.7 million square feet of space at 3 World Trade Center drove significant quarter-over-quarter changes with availability rising 140 basis points to 12.7% and asking rents increasing 6% to $61.62-per-square-foot.

Downtown registered 1.25 million square feet of negative absorption in the second quarter. A third of all new leasing came from TAMI tenants, the most of any sector. Fourteen deals were signed by firms relocating into the Downtown market. Since 2011, 399 firms have moved into the market, accounting for 13 million square feet of leasing activity.