Some Midtown Manhattan office landlords lower rents

New York

MIDTOWN Manhattan office landlords are losing some power to set rents on their properties, even in the prized Park Avenue corridor, after five years of aggressive price-pushing.

Tenants at top-quality offices in Midtown paid 7.4 per cent less in February than at the end of last year, after a 13.3 per cent increase for all of 2015, according to data from research firm CompStak Inc. Landlords including SL Green Realty Corp, Manhattan's biggest owner of office towers, have lowered asking rents in some of their most desirable buildings. Others are holding the line.

"With all the market uncertainty, there may be a 'let's meet the market' mentality by landlords," said Scott Rechler, chief executive officer of RXR Realty LLC, which is keeping rents steady in the nine Midtown skyscrapers it controls. "Whereas last year, it was 'let's move the market, let's lead the market.'" Midtown landlords, accustomed to having the upper hand in leases in the largest and costliest US office market, face the prospect of a slowdown in demand amid the stock-market slide, added competition from new skyscrapers, and a sense that the pace of job growth can't keep up. With cost-conscious employers packing more workers into tighter quarters, it…