Manhattan office leasing is still going strong even if tenants are taking longer to commit. Rents are still continuing to climb as better spaces are leased, with the best buildings and the top of towers seeing rents push from $80 to top $100 a foot once again.

Mitchell Konsker, vice chairman of Jones Lang LaSalle, has not observed slowdowns for either his available agencies or his tenant rep business. “I do hear people saying they are kicking back and observing what’s going on,” he said.

He also believes that as midtown gets pricier, tenants will make a more serious effort to look downtown. “It happens every time the pricing gets frothy,” Konsker said.

According to Gregg Lorberbaum, principal of Centric Real Estate Advisors, “No matter how you slice it, there is a significant financial benefit to being downtown.”

Last week’s Conde Nast commitment to as much as 1 million feet at the new 1 World Trade Center is also giving other companies a reason to give downtown availabilities a harder look.

Condé Nast said its employees’ commuting patterns from New Jersey and Brooklyn made downtown an easier sell than Times Square.

“It’s still a tough sell for someone from Westchester or who lives uptown to move offices from midtown to downtown,” said Lorberbaum.

Lorberbaum noted that Chelsea, with a more active nightlife than downtown and an office spillover into the Meatpacking District, still has space in the mid-$30s a square-foot. “There is a shadow market,” where floors next to a space on the market can be made available.

The Durst Organization’s John Grotto said the company’s spaces have seen significant leasing activity with tenants expanding and moving within their portfolio.

Similarly, Anthony Malkin, president of Malkin Holdings, has his prewar trophy portfolio that includes the Empire State Building seeing a lot of activity. “Clearly around the Plaza district you have the hedge fund and investment management world that have heated things up,” Malkin said. “On Park Avenue South you see activity from tech and new media.”

Meanwhile, he says, publishing, new media and tech companies have become the “sweet spot” of the Broadway south of 42nd Street corridor, all transitioning away from garment tenants.

Malkin is looking to help and expand current tenants in his portfolio before he takes on new tenants. He added, “I am making the intelligent choice as to who makes the better credit, tenants that can renew and expand and pay higher rents.”