Tech Start-Ups

Foursquare. Tumblr. Google. The stretch of Midtown South from the Flatiron District all the way down to SoHo and TriBeCa is home to some of the country, never mind the city’s, most prolific tech start-ups. As it currently stands, the office and commercial vacancy rate in Midtown South Manhattan is one of the tightest in all of the country at 5.9 percent (a drop from 6.4 percent the quarter before.) However, as emerging tech and information companies continue to plant roots in the neighborhoods and rents continue to skyrocket, many non-profits and arts group are finding it more and more difficult to stay in the area.

It may be too early to declare that New York City is the next Silicon Valley, but the evidence that we’re headed in that direction is hard to deny. Various neighborhoods across Manhattan have proven to be fertile breeding grounds for new tech start-ups like Foursquare Labs and Gilt Groupe, plus Google, Facebook, and Twitter have all opened offices here. Over the past 5 years, high-tech employment has risen by 30% to 90,000 jobs, and New York City recently surpassed Boston in tech venture capital raised. These developments are impeccably timed as well; both the Manhattan real esate sales market and the NYC economy as a whole are looking to non-traditional sources of activity to replace, or at least supplement, the declining activity of the financial sector.