NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Manhattan office vacancy rate ticked up in the third quarter and average rent was essentially flat, as demand for office space remained soft, real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield said on Tuesday.

The overall Manhattan vacancy rate at the end of the third quarter stood at 9.6 percent, up from 9.3 percent a year earlier and from 9.0 from in the second quarter, said the report.

NEW YORK, Oct 2 (Reuters) – The U.S. office market recovery
remained stalled in the third quarter as uncertainty over the
upcoming federal elections, U.S. tax policy and Europe’s fiscal
problems crimped job growth, keeping demand for office space
limp and rent growth anemic.

“We’re stuck,” said Ryan Severino, senior economist for Reis
Inc, which released its third-quarter office report on Tuesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The board of General Growth Properties Inc (GGP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on Monday rejected activist investor Bill Ackman’s call for the company to consider selling itself, saying its shareholders would be best served by the company sticking to its current business plan.

“After reviewing your letters and giving the matters you raised serious consideration, the Board has unanimously determined that the best value for all shareholders will be achieved by GGP continuing to execute on its well-conceived business plan,” the board said in a letter to Ackman contained in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The group leading the effort to create a publicly traded company with the Empire State Building as its centerpiece named a half dozen independent directors to join its future board, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.

Empire State Realty Trust Inc’s group of proposed directors includes a slate of commercial real estate veterans such as Thomas DeRosa, the former vice chairman and chief financial officer of the Rouse Co, according to the filing.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Companies renegotiating their property leases in New York are seeking lower rents by playing the World Trade Center card — threatening to move to the towers rising from the rubble of the 9/11 attacks.

Many brokers and landlords say they’re just bluffing.

The WTC is struggling to fill its millions of square feet of office space at the southern edge of Manhattan amid a real estate slowdown all across the city. It is so bad that construction is set to be halted on two of the four towers planned for the WTC complex until tenants sign up.

NEW YORK, Aug 1 (Reuters) – General Growth Properties Inc
, the No. 2 U.S. mall owner, on Wednesday raised its
forecast for the year after reporting a quarterly earnings
measure that rose 24.1 percent, on higher rent and occupancy,
beating Wall Street’s forecast.

The company posted second-quarter core funds from operations
(FFO) of $228.3 million, or 23 cents per share, compared with
$184.0 million, or 18 cents a share, a year ago.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The rebound in U.S. office building sales hit a speed bump in the second quarter as weak demand for office space made it more difficult for prospective buyers to predict the income from their investments.

Sales of U.S. office buildings in the second quarter fell 10 percent from a year earlier to $14.8 billion, according to Real Capital Analytics, which tracks sales of office properties of at least $2.5 million.

NEW YORK, July 31 (Reuters) – Two of the largest global real
estate services companies reported higher profits on Tuesday but
each warned the cautious global economic environment was
affecting real estate.

CBRE Group Inc said second-quarter earnings,
excluding charges, rose 31 percent, as strength in the Americas
offset a decline in revenue from Europe.

NEW YORK, July 30 (Reuters) – New York’s Metropolitan
Transportation Authority gave Apple Inc an inside
advantage landing a lease for the technology company’s store in
Grand Central Terminal, according to an audit New York State
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released Monday.

The MTA for more than a year worked behind the scenes
exclusively with Apple on the lease before issuing a request for
proposals, the state comptroller’s office said, citing its
auditor’s’ report. That resulted in only one response, and that
was from Apple, the state comptroller’s office said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bailed-out insurer American International Group Inc may leave its headquarters in lower Manhattan next year when its lease expires, an executive at SL Green Realty Corp, the company that owns the building said.

AIG’s lease for 803,000 square feet of the 1.1 million square-foot building at 180 Maiden Lane expires next year. SL Green bought a 49.9 percent interest in the building when it helped The Moinian Group refinance the property last year.