Despite optimistic projections that Connecticut could reap the benefits of New York City’s failure to contain the coronavirus pandemic – and early signs its residential real estate market may already be doing so – the state’s commercial real estate sector has yet to see the gains.

Fairfield County’s office market saw a major slowdown in leasing activity in the second quarter, according to a new report from CBRE, with just 136,591 square feet worth of leases signed. That represents a 50 percent decrease from the first quarter and a 56 percent decline from the second quarter of 2019.

The lack of demand and addition of sublease space coming to market in Fairfield County led to a 150-basis-point quarterly increase in the availability rate to 25.2 percent in the second quarter, CBRE said, with 42 percent of that new availability from sublease space.

Still, there were signs the predicted benefits of companies looking to move out of New York’s dense – and expensive – office environment could be on their way.

“Despite setbacks during the second quarter, the Fairfield County office market has begun to see activity from New York City occupiers seeking satellite office space closer to their Fairfield-based workers who are not yet ready to use mass transit,” CBRE Fairfield County office broker Tom Pajolek said in a statement. “We’ve seen several small tenants take space already and anticipate this trend will continue into the third and fourth quarters of the year.”

While a boon for the Fairfield market, the modest trend is not a significant factor for leasing demand or occupancy in Manhattan’s 400 million-square-foot leasing market, CBRE said.

The average asking rent of office space in Fairfield County during the second quarter was stable at $34.35 per square foot, largely unchanged quarter-over-quarter but down 2 percent year-over-year. Net absorption was negative 617,768 square feet, down from the previous quarter’s level of negative 55,800 square feet.