NYC Business News Round-Up for December
A summary of the highlights and interesting business news in New York City here at the top of December 2021.
Office rentals are back, consumer businesses posted a strong Black Friday, and New York found itself on the most expensive cities in the world list. Here is a round-up of business news in the capital of commerce this December.
The last couple of years have been a rollercoaster for cities across the globe; but few cities have seen dramatic shifts like New York. However, despite ups and downs, New Yorkers are back filling up busy Manhattan sidewalks, lighting the Christmas tree at Rockefeller, and working away on the next generation of startups and investments that set the country’s tone. Here at the start of December, the NY Alliance team met to highlight some of the most impactful and interesting business news from The Big Apple.
To start, it’s always interesting to see New York’s place on the list of most expensive places to live. According to Bloomberg, Tel Aviv ranks atop the rankings as the priciest DMA on the globe. The Israeli city climbed from fifth place last year, pushing Paris and Singapore down to second and third, respectively. Zurich and Hong Kong rounded out the top five, with NYC coming in sixth. This places New York as the most expensive American city, with Los Angeles at ninth as the only other city in the top ten. Check out the rest of the article here.
On the real estate front, New York’s office market enjoyed its strongest month since the beginning of the pandemic in November, leasing about 3.1 million square feet of Manhattan last month. Even as concern over the omicron variant grows, businesses have shown significant interest in moving back to physical office space in the city. Of course even this month is down significantly compared to pre-pandemic numbers, but the strong fourth quarter has real estate executives eager for a strong 2022. Crain’s has the rest here.
In other exciting holiday news, the 75-foot Norway spruce in Rockefeller was lit up on Wednesday night. The area has opened up to pedestrian traffic again, in a shift from last year’s constricted viewing situation. Pedestrian-only side streets on 49th and 50th between 5th and 6th are open for festive strollers as the tree begins to light up from 6am to midnight through January 17th. For more holiday news, head over to the Gothamist.
