Measuring Visitation Rates in Manhattan Office Buildings

To date, much of the discussion of NYC’s office visit and/or the rate of return to office has focused on estimating a single market average. Such headline rates have been helpful to gauge the direction of the overall market, and in fact show gains in workers being in the office from 2020 levels. However, a single rate does not capture significant differences between buildings. To get a fuller perspective, REBNY performed a preliminary analysis of Placer.ai location data. Results indicate that this location data provides a more nuanced and comprehensive picture of Manhattan’s office building visitation rates.

Preliminary analysis of Placer.ai data in 2022 indicates*:

• Average building visitation rates in 2022 surpassed 60% of pre-pandemic baselines

• Visitation rates in nearly two-thirds of buildings exceeded 50% of pre-pandemic baselines

• Class A properties displayed stronger growth (66.3% average visitation rate) in comparison to Class B properties (53.6% average visitation rate)

*All totals are based on Placer.ai location intelligence data for 250 office buildings from
January to mid-December in 2021 and 2022, compared to the same period in 2019.