Despite a shaky political climate and real estate market where office leasing and condo sales have taken a dip, New York developers remain bullish and are moving full steam ahead with tens of millions of square feet of new developments — including tens of thousands of residential units. According to analysis done by The Real Deal, the top 10 most active builders are constructing 26 million square feet of commercial and residential space in Manhattan alone!
Related Companies — the most active builder in Manhattan with 14 projects totaling more than 9 million square feet and 2,000 residential units under development — is shifting its strategy partly because of its success in attracting office tenants to Hudson Yards and partly because they weren’t focused on trophy towers. After Related Companies, Extell Development, Brookfield Property Partners, Tishman Speyer round out the top five.
In contrast, some developers are tweaking their original plans to respond to an altered market that reflects today’s buyers who are demanding better value and shying away from the trophy units that might have appealed to them just a few years ago. For example, they are shifting away from one-bedroom units (more popular with foreign investors who are less and less prominent as buyers) to two-bedrooms (favored by Manhattan buyers), as shown by Halstead’s year-end development report.