NEW YORK CITY—CBRE Group Inc. reports that theManhattan office and retail markets showed continued strength inthe third quarter. Leasing activity increased in the Midtown,Midtown South and Downtown office markets, while the city's retailsector saw a number of major department stores announce theirplanned entrance into the Manhattan marketplace.

“We are seeing a remarkable and broad-based improvement in theManhattan market,” says Peter Turchin, vicechairman, CBRE. “This improvement is no longer isolated to justMidtown South, but is equally strong in Midtown and Downtown.”CBRE's analysis of Manhattan's 18 submarkets showed that 13 of 18had positive absorption year-to-date, with the threenegative-absorption submarkets solely due to the addition of newblocks of space.

Year-over-year, Midtown's leasing activity increased to 12.64million square feet in the third quarter of this year from 11million square feet at the same time in 2013. Absorption improvedto a positive 1.46 million square feet from a negative 590,000square feet and the average asking rent in Midtown rose to$74.73-per-square-foot from $70.19-per-square-foot.