Finally - Analysis of the Office Market in the Outer Boroughs

So now I have finally found a market report (from Grubb & Ellis) for the NYC Office market that includes development in the outer boroughs, which they describe as "booming.". They focus, of course, mostly on Long Island City in Queens and Forest City Ratner in Brooklyn.

The average vacancy rate for outer boroughs office space is 8.6%, as opposed to Manhattan's overall 7.7% vacancy rate (though some submarkets within Manhattan have vacancy rates of less than 2%).

Prices per square foot are dramatically lower than in Manhattan. Brooklyn is the most expensive for $36.54, while The Bronx is cheapest at $28 per square foot. The Bronx also has the second least amount of office space available after Staten Island.

Interestingly, there are 30,000 square feet of office space being built in Staten Island.

It might be nice if someone could build office space in the South Bronx somewhere, but the issue would be space - where would you put it? Can you build decent office space in or very close to a place that is not the hottest place to live just yet? If one were to build a nice office building in the South Bronx, would it spur development of higher end housing and retail?

A Table follows from the report:



Click on image to enlarge

For such a project, one would need a rather daring, creative development firm. The parts of the South Bronx that everyone has had their eye on does not have the greatest public transportation options. I would guess that the office and any associated or nearby housing complexes could just have a van service within it linking to subway stations in Upper Manhattan, the South Bronx and even perhaps Queens.

If I don't get picked up by some firm (as I really prefer to be), I might be tempted to try to gather some funds and develop it myself.