Can 111/115 Broadway Steal Midtown South’s Lunch?

Brad Gerla and Adam Foster, two executives at the real estate services firm CBRE, were recently named as leasing agents of 111/115 Broadway, two sister office towers in Lower Manhattan. The pair, who are both known as prolific downtown dealmakers, were actually the brokers in charge of handling the property, which is owned and operated as one building, about 10 years ago (in Manahttan’s competitive brokerage business, rival teams often replace one another every few years or so). Since their last stint at the roughly one million-square-foot-property, tech and new media companies have again become busy takers of space. But unlike the dot-com boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lower Manhattan has yet to catch on in the sector and has been supplanted largely by Midtown South. 111/115 Broadway is a building that Mr. Gerla and Mr. Foster say has the combination of character and economics to draw tech tenants back to the area. “We’ve been marketing to tech tenants because that’s an active segment of the market right now,” Mr. Gerla said. Asking rents at the property range from $38 to $40 per square foot.

Second Floor

The entire second floor of 115 Broadway, a roughly 21,000 square foot space, is vacant and one of the priorities of Mr. Gerla and Mr. Foster. “It used to be occupied by a bank,” Mr. Foster said. The space boasts high ceilings of about 15-feet, which for years had been concealed under a drop ceiling. “If you have a drop ceiling it conserves your heating and air conditioning costs,” Mr. Gerla said, while also noting how that type of installation had hidden the space's greatest charm. Metal rods that had been affixed to the real ceiling to hang the drop ceiling, known as blackiron, hang over most of the space but ownership plans to remove them and clean up at least a portion of the floor so that tenants will be able to tour the space in a cleaner condition. “This is exactly the type of space we think will appeal to tech tenants,” Mr. Gerla said. Mr. Gerla and Mr. Foster said that the third floor, though it’s rented now, could be made available to create an over 40,000 square foot block.

18th Floor

The 18th floor of 115 Broadway is also available. Though it’s also 21,000 square feet, it doesn’t feel quite as roomy as the second floor because its ceilings are about the height of a normal office space. The floor has excellent views of the surrounding neighborhood, including the nearby World Trade Center.