NYC office space landlord’s profits jump

[Published May 2011 and updated June 2023] The biggest office landlord in Manhattan has seen its profits rise by 22 per cent compared to the first quarter of last year.

Brookfield Office Properties reported that net income attributable to common shareholders for the first quarter of this year was USD 306 million or USD 0.54 per diluted share, compared with USD 250 million or USD 0.44 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2010.

See examples of Offices for Lease in Manhattan 

“We are encouraged by the record leasing activity accomplished during the quarter as we witnessed accelerated recovery in our primary markets,” stated Ric Clark, president and Chief Executive Officer of Brookfield Office Properties.

“With a solid backlog of advanced leasing discussions, developments positioned to commence in our primary markets, and progress toward our strategic goals, we remain positive about our 2011 performance.”

Much of Brookfield’s increase in funds is due to contributions from its portfolio of office buildings in Australia.

Currently, Brookfield owns more than 78 million square feet of office space in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Toronto and Sydney.

The company’s profits are another sign that the commercial real estate market in the US is slowly recovering from the dip it took during the financial crisis.

Brookfield reported an occupancy rate of 93.6 per cent at the end of the first quarter of 2011. The company’s properties in lower Manhattan account for almost 25 per cent of the net operating income of the company.

The company stated that it rented 2.8 million square feet of space during the quarter at an average rent of USD 30.40 per square foot.

Meanwhile, the research association The Conference Board has reported that the US economy’s recovery from the recession is the slowest on record since 1961.

Editor’s notes: As of June 2023, Brookfield Office Properties owned over 130 million square feet of office space across 300 properties in locations including Adelaide, London, New Delhi and Shanghai.

Its flagship property in Toronto is First Canadian Place which offers 225,000 square feet of retail space as well as 2,377,000 square feet of office space to lease. Some of that space is rented by office provider Regus which offers over 140 fully fitted and managed turnkey offices on flexible contracts out of the space.