Midtown South Graduates

It’s official: midtown South has been annexed by midtown, as the prospect of billions in investment in Penn Station and some 7.5 million square feet in anticipated development by Steve Roth’s Vornado Realty Trust have convinced a major brokerage that things are changing along 34^th Street.

CB Richard Ellis today announced that the Empire State Building, the Penn Plaza buildings and others in the area will now be included in the firm’s definition of “midtown.”

The move, which also stretched the boundaries to include the New York Times building on Eighth Avenue, puts about 17 million square feet of office space into midtown, according to CB Richard Ellis.

Press release below.

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN EXPANDS TO INCLUDE
NEW PENN STATION SUBMARKET

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With Redefined Submarket Boundaries, Midtown’s New Penn Station Submarket to Comprise the Majority of Midtown South’s Penn Plaza Segment and Part of PAS/Madison Square

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17 Million Sq. Ft. of Inventory to be Added to Midtown

New York – November 28, 2007 – CB Richard Ellis today announced that it is expanding the borders of the Midtown Manhattan market effective January 1, 2008, to include the newly created Penn Station submarket. With redefined submarket boundaries, Penn Station will be comprised of the majority of the existing Penn Plaza segment, part of Midtown South’s PAS/Madison Square submarket and a small portion of Midtown’s Times Square/West Side segment. The addition of Penn Station is expected to add 17 million sq. ft. of office space to Midtown, bringing the market’s total inventory to approximately 217 million sq. ft. The redrawn borders represent a significant evolution in the way New York City’s largest real estate services firm tracks market activity.

The Penn Station submarket will bring together some of New York City’s premier properties, including several of the skyline’s most iconic buildings—the Empire State Building, 1 and 2 Penn Plaza, Madison Square Garden, the James A. Farley Post Office and Hotel Pennsylvania—as well as the largest building site left in Manhattan, the 26-acre Hudson Yards development parcel.

“Beginning with the resurgence of Times Square in the mid-1990s, the core Midtown market has undergone a significant westward and southward expansion over the past decade, highlighted by such newly iconic buildings as the New York Times Building and Eleven Times Square, currently under development,” said Dean Shapiro, CBRE’s Executive Managing Director of New York City Brokerage. “More recently, a burgeoning 34^th Street business corridor, as well as an exciting roster of current and planned office projects and the impending development of the Hudson Yards area, reaffirm that the conventional boundaries of Midtown and Midtown South have changed.”

Mr. Shapiro added, “CB Richard Ellis’ commitment to accurately representing the changing face of the Manhattan office market necessitated an internal adjustment of our borders to reflect these historic marketwide updates.”

With the addition of Penn Station, Midtown now stretches south to 31^st Street from 5^th to 10^th Avenues and to the north side of 30^th Street from 10^th Avenue to the Hudson River. Penn Station’s northern border will extend across 35^th Street from 5^th to 9^th Avenue, across 34^th from 9^th to 10^th Avenue and continue west on 33^rd Street to the Hudson River. The western boundary will extend along the Hudson River from 30^th to 33^rd Street, and the eastern border will be moved east to the west side of 5^th Avenue from 31^st to 35^th Streets.

In Midtown South, the boundaries for the Chelsea and PAS/Madison Square submarkets will also be revised, with the northern border of Chelsea moving up to the southern side of 31^st Street and a portion of the western PAS/Madison Square border moving east. In Midtown, Times Square/West Side’s southern border will be moved north to 33^rd Street from 10^th Avenue to the Hudson River.

The new borders will be rolled out in CB Richard Ellis’ monthly MarketView reports (effective with the February 2008 reports), and other research and marketing collateral.