According to the latest monthly office use report from the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), Manhattan office buildings in June 2024 experienced a visitation rate that was 77% of pre-pandemic levels, marking the highest monthly total since REBNY began publishing analyses in February of 2023. This represents a five percentage point increase compared to June of last year.
The report is based on Placer.ai location data for 350 Manhattan office buildings and tracks mobile data from both tenants and employees, as well as any visitors or retail customers within those buildings.
Keith DeCoster, VP of research at REBNY, stated that this rise in visitation is not only beneficial for office properties but also for thousands of retail businesses and the transit system that rely on daytime commuters. In particular, top-performing properties in Midtown saw higher visitation rates while some B and C grade buildings with convenient access to transportation also showed improvement.
These findings align with Avison Young’s recent launch of their Office Busyness Index which tracks mobility data across U.S. office markets. According to this index, Manhattan’s utilization rate (at 76.6% compared to pre-pandemic levels) is nearly fifteen percentage points above the national average during the same period and has increased by over seven percent year-over-year.
