February office building visitation report shows continued incremental growth back to pre-pandemic activity levels

Manhattan, NY The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) released its latest monthly analysis of Placer.ai location data in 350 Manhattan office buildings. 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 February 2024 had an average visitation rate of 66% of 2019 levels, up from 63% the previous month and 62% in February 2023. The increase was encouraging considering that February is typically the slowest month for visitation rates based on monthly visitation from 2018-2024.

The highest quality Class A+ properties had a 71% average visitation rate in February while Class A/A- and Class B/C buildings both stood at 65%. These are all increases from the previous month and February 2023. Notably, Class A+ visitations are up 6 basis points year-over-year. 

Looking at average visitation rates by submarket, Midtown South saw a 10% jump in its visitation rate from January, reaching 74% of 2019 levels in February. Midtown visitations reached 65% and Downtown reached 54%, both above February 2023 levels.

“Manhattan office building visitation rates in February continued to inch back closer to 2019 levels,” said Keith DeCoster, director of market data and policy at the Real Estate Board of New York. “Considering that February is historically the slowest month in terms of visitation, the findings indicate that employers are having some success drawing their teams back to the office more frequently.” 

The buildings analyzed in this report include a representative sample of various types of office buildings. Buildings that were not completed by 2019 are not factored in this report or 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 this report include visitation data with a minimum dwell time of 7 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 https://www.rebny.com/research-and-reports/.