STAMFORD, CT-Data for Q3 2011 from CBRE shows that the office market in Westchester County cooled during the quarter, while in Fairfield County—a larger market—velocity picked up.
Availability in Westchester increased in Q3 by 0.3% from the quarter previous, landing at 18.63%. This fact, along with the 890,169-square-feet of sublease space that the quarter saw, caused a slight decrease in asking rents, which dropped to $26.38 from $26.47.
Colin Reilly, a SVP at CBRE’s Westchester/Fairfield County operation, says that historically there has been more activity in Fairfield, a statement borne out by the data. “It’s a bigger office market, for one,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “Fairfield County is a 44-million-square-foot market, so it’s just bigger. And then you have tenants who tend to act in lock step with equity markets.”
For Q3, though, the tenants expanding and signing new leases weren’t the typical hedge funds. Activity in Fairfield was driven in large part by entertainment firms. “Blue Sky Studios in Greenwich took an additional 43,000 square feet,” Reilly says, while WWE—Vince McMahon’s operation—took roughly 21,000 square feet more space.
Fairfield’s office market was significantly improved, compared to the previous. Expansions, like those noted, were chiefly responsible and accounted for almost 50% of leases. Higher asking rents were seen in the area, hitting $33.55 per square foot overall, and $62.02 per square foot in the Greenwich submarket.
Reilly describes the Fairfield market as having “more peaks and troughs” and predicted that leasing data for Q4 would align with past trends. “Historically the fourth quarter has been a fatter part of the leasing distribution,” he says. “So you get a bigger share of the market and activity occurring in that quarter.”
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