NEW YORK CITY-Relief is on the way for New York companies looking for class A office space, currently in scarce supply in the city. According to data from the New York Building Congress, by the end of the decade up to an additional 20 million square feet of class A space will be added, much of it green.

It’s a sign, New York Building Congress president Richard Anderson says, of the city’s improving economy. “These buildings would not go forward without a net addition to employment in the city,” Anderson tells GlobeSt.com. New York City office employment, the NYBC notes, has been on the rise, with 48,000 jobs regained as of April 2011, for a total of 1.7 million office jobs.

Non-seasonally adjusted unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics also shows improvements. April’s unemployment rate in New York City was 8.6%, down from 9.8% the same month last year.

A lot of the new space is the NYBC mentions is set to come online within the next few years, due in large part to the redevelopment taking place at the World Trade Center site.  In addition, however, there are other buildings going up that will fill the need for prime office space, including Boston Properties’ recommencement of 250 W. 55^th St., a one million square foot tower set to be completed in 2014.

“We have not been building class A office space to the extent of previous decades and there are many tenants that are looking for large, contiguous blocks of space that are high tech and green,” Anderson says. “Significant upgrades are included as well, but mostly it’s new buildings--like down at the World Trade Center, the Boston Properties building and the new Gem tower.” Extell Development Co.’s International Gem tower is a 34 story commercial condominium going up in the Diamond District.