Press Release

September Manhattan Office Visitations Reached 75% of Prepandemic Levels Post-Labor Day

REBNY Staff

November 6, 2024

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Average visitations for September 2024 were 72% of 2019 baseline

Class A+ buildings reach 84%

NEW YORK, NY –The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) today released its latest monthly analysis of Placer.ai location data in 350 Manhattan office buildings for September. This report tracks mobile data of office tenants and their employees, and, where applicable, also reflects the presence of office visitors and retail customers and employees within those buildings.

According to the report, Manhattan office buildings in September 2024 had an average visitation rate of 72% of 2019 levels, two percentage points lower than the previous month. Low visitations during Labor Day week pulled the monthly rate down. Excluding the Labor Day holiday, visitations averaged 75% for the final three weeks of the month. Following trends from prior months, the highest quality class A+ property visitation rates were much higher than other buildings, averaging 84% across submarkets in September compared to 72% for class A/A- buildings and 69% for B/C buildings.

Visitations averaged 75% in Midtown, 71% in Midtown South and 66% Downtown. Visitations were up year-over-year in the overall market and in nearly every asset class and neighborhood studied in this report.

“Manhattan’s office sector continues to trail prepandemic levels but has shown incremental growth through 2024,” said Keith DeCoster, Vice President of Research at the Real Estate Board of New York. “This is a positive trend for New York City’s overall economy as our retail sector and a wide range of tax revenues are closely tied to the performance of the office sector.”

The buildings analyzed in these reports include a representative sample of various types of office buildings. Buildings that were not completed by 2019 are not factored in this report or in the 2023 average visitation rates.

The report analyzes mobile data provided by Placer.ai from geo-fenced buildings, including multiple phones carried by individual visitors. This has no impact on building visitation rates, as the same possibility of individuals carrying multiple phones exists in 2023 and the 2019 baseline.

Findings in these reports include visitation data with a minimum dwell time of seven minutes. In turn, data may include some visitors other than office employees such as building maintenance staff, visitors attending company meetings, as well as visitors to retail at the base of an office building. This visitation rate captures the broader economic impact and use of office buildings.

For more information about REBNY research reports, visit //go.rebny.com/Reports.

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Chris Santarelli

press@rebny.com

(212) 616-5249

Topics Covered

  • Manhattan
  • Commercial