Are We There Yet? A World Trade Center Progress Report

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“Condé is the confirmation that it’s not just the insurance companies and law firms that work Downtown,” said CBRE (CBRE) Tristate Chief Executive Mary Ann Tighe, who represented Condé Nast’s 1-million-square-foot lease.

That deal alone has acted as a selling point across the Downtown market, brokers said. Why stay in Midtown when the fashionable sorts are working in sparkling new buildings? Brokers have been using this pitch on clients while touring 7 WTC.

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Law firm WilmerHale moved into its 210,000-square-foot offices at 7 World Trade Center in July. Brokers have been highlighting WilmerHale’s environmentally friendly new offices as a selling point showing what a new home at the World Trade Center will be.

Ms. Tighe said she toured Condé Nast through a number of Downtown offices, including a handful of floors at 7 World Trade Center, to give the publisher a sense of what life Downtown could be.

“In order to explain what the 21st century looks like, you need to actually walk a floor,” she said. “We looked at the built space, we visited a number of offices in 7 World Trade.”

But some recent reports argue that most firms are not going to be following Condé Nast’s lead. Last week, Reuters reported that law firms and banks are not falling for the Downtown carrot, opting instead to remain close to their clients in the Midtown market.

Aided by tax breaks and environmental incentives, average asking rents in the new World Trade Center range between $75 and $80 per square foot, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Low rental rates, however, may not be enough to woo tenants away from their current lease deals in other markets.