Manhattan office building visitations continue year-over-year rise in May according to REBNY report

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 for May. 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 May 2024 had an average visitation rate of 74% of 2019 levels. Year-over-year, the overall average visitation rate in May is up four percentage points from the same month in 2023.

The May rate is slightly down from April’s 75% visitation rate. However, May’s results were heavily impacted by holiday travel over Memorial Day. Excluding Memorial Day week, the visitation rate in May would have exceeded April’s level.

The highest quality Class A+ properties had an 86% average visitation rate in May compared to 72% in the B/C sector and 69% in the A/A- sector. Looking at submarkets, May’s visitation rates were generally consistent with April in Midtown, Midtown South and Downtown, with each market seeing growth of at least 3% from 2023.

“The Manhattan office market has seen sustained year-over-year visitation growth through the first five months of 2024,” said Keith DeCoster, director of market data and policy at the Real Estate Board of New York. “While visitation rates have generally held firm the last three months, we will watch closely to see if visitation rates increase, hold steady, or decline during the summer in line with historic behavior.”

The buildings analyzed in these reports 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 these reports 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.