Midtown asking rents reached an average of $85.61 per sf, upfrom $84.27 in February and $72.25 a year earlier. Midtown Southasking rents rose slightly to $53.15 per sf, up from $52.94 inFebruary and $41.43 a year ago, while growth in Downtown askingrents was essentially flat, rising to $49 per sf in March versus$48.91 in February and $42.76 per sf in March '07. OverallManhattan asking rents stand at $70.72 per sf, up slightly from$69.56 per sf in February and $58.88 per sf in March '07.

"I think you're seeing that prices are not going up at the samerate as in the past 18 months," Robert P. Stella, EVP and principalat CresaPartners, tells Real Estate New York. "The increases werevery slight if at all from quarter to quarter. So that's probably asign that we're seeing rates flatten and they will probably pullback sometime this year

Leasing for Q1 '08 reached 3.91 million sf throughout Manhattan,compared to 2.97 million sf in Q1 '07. March leasing increased to1.52 million sf from 1.32 million sf in February and 1.42 millionsf a year ago.