Are We There Yet? A World Trade Center Progress Report

reprints


“Some people don’t quite see the vision that Si Newhouse did in trailblazing what will really be realized at the site, with the Calatrava train station, with the eight acres of the park, with all the incredible retail space that will be opening on the site,” said Tara Stacom, vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield who is representing the Durst Organization in leasing 1 World Trade Center. Ms. Stacom’s team will be unveiling the marketing materials for 1 World Trade Center sometime in the approaching weeks. In the meantime, in order to sell an unfinished product, one that is literally covered in fencing, Ms. Stacom has been taking her prospective tenants on tours of the Memorial park and to 7 World Trade Center. Having seen what a finished floor plate can look like comes handy when a tenant tours a raw floor at 1 World Trade Center, Ms. Stacom added.

There is opportunity for tenants in the Downtown market, and there may be movement toward that market from Midtown South. The overall vacancy rate in Manhattan was 9.3 percent, added Ken McCarthy, a senior economist at Cushman & Wakefield, while the vacancy rate in Midtown South was at 6.1 percent in the second quarter of 2012, making it the tightest market in the country. Downtown’s overall vacancy rate was at 8.9 percent during the second quarter of 2012.

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“Tenants who can’t find space in Midtown South anymore are now starting to look Downtown as well as [in] Midtown,” said Mr. McCarthy. But the World Trade Center may not be the kind of destination these tenants are seeking.

“A Midtown South tenant would tend to look at different kinds of properties than the newer buildings,” he added. “We definitely know that tenants are still looking at some of the major properties as well, and that will continue to be the case.”

For 1 World Trade Center, now two years away from building out Condé Nast’s offices, those working to lease the Durst Organization-owned tower are pleased with its current vacancy rate.

“We can turn over to the next tenant sometime in the second quarter, maybe third quarter, of 2014, so we’re confident as we continue to actively tour—as again this afternoon we have another 12 people touring the site—that we are well on our way to what we are considering a very successful campaign,” said Ms. Stacom.
“Two years is more than enough time.”

drosen@observer.com