Commentary Los Angeles-area office building landlords could be the only ones in the country increasing rent during the ongoing pandemic. Rental rates in the city were up 1.2 percent year-over-year, according to Colliers’ fourth-quarter 2020 office market snapshot. (Los Angeles landlords charged an average of $49.55 per square foot during fourth-quarter 2020, compared with $48.95 per square foot the year prior.) Conversely, the San Francisco Bay Area’s office rents plummeted 22.4 percent year-over-year. Office rental rents in the northern California region are now less than those in Manhattan, where asking rents fell 5.8 percent year-over-year. According to the Colliers report, rental rates averaged $72.13 per square foot per year in the San Francisco Bay Area during fourth-quarter 2020, versus $74.39 per square foot per year on Manhattan. When averaging office rents in Los Angeles, Colliers considers office property in Downtown Los Angeles, West Los Angeles and the “Tri City Area” …