By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
FINANCIAL DISTRICT — A new real estate report shows glimmers of a recovery in lower Manhattan’s residential market, but continued weakness in the commercial sector.
The most concrete sign of an upturn in the Downtown Alliance’s first-quarter report was that condo prices below Chambers Street rose 10 percent since the fourth quarter of 2009, to $970 per square foot. Prices generally fall during the slow winter season, so the increase was “particularly encouraging,” the report said.
Another positive sign was that lower Manhattan’s rental vacancy rate dropped, from 2.05 percent at the end of 2009 to 1.45 percent in the first quarter of 2010.
Landlords are still reducing rents to keep apartments filled, and the Downtown Alliance predicts further rent reductions as new buildings like the 903-unit Beekman Tower come online later this year.
The report presents a bleaker picture for downtown’s commercial space, which reached a 10 percent vacancy in the first quarter of 2010. That’s a 4 percent increase in vacancy, compared to last quarter and a 23 percent increase over the first quarter of 2009.
While the Financial District did see 29 percent more commercial space leased compared to a year ago, much of that space went to government tenants: The city renewed a lease of nearly 245,000 square feet at 60 Broad St., and the School Construction Authority leased 106,000 square feet at 26 Broadway for a new high school and gym.
Hotels downtown are doing better than this time last year, with a 9 percent increase in occupancy rate even as new hotels opened. Six additional hotels are either planned or under construction below Chambers Street.
Finally, lower Manhattan welcomed 16 new businesses in the first quarter of 2010, including two banks, a couple chain restaurants and some smaller cafes and bars.
