Crain’s New York (print only) is reporting that Larry Silverstein dropped about $300,000 producing cloth-bound promotional brochures (at $150 a pop) for 7WTC, a property still unsullied by the grime of commerce. He’s got a good nine months or so to seal the deal — a deal — any deal. But he’s also got some 1.7 million square feet to deal with.
Now, as you can expect, and I’ve likely said before, I don’t give the proverbial rat’s ass about commercial real estate. Soul-crushing behemoths courtesy of David Childs and Ceasar Pelli, if we are lucky, that hasten the degradation of neighborhoods and haven’t trickled any benefits down into my pockets? No thanks. Sure, you can start with the half-assed Adam Smith lecture, but I don’t think my avocation of campaigning for the dismantling of speculative real estate is actually going to change anything, so leave me to my windmills.
What is significant about this continued failing — mind you, we’re talking about Class A space that, allowing for still-available grants, rebates, and other post-9/11 assistance, nets out to less than 50% of what some boutique buildings are getting in Midtown, and a good 30% less than what larger blocks are going for — is how accurate a bellwether it will be for downtown recovery. Remember that Kevin Rampe, who still exerts a lot of pull, is adamant that another 7 to 10 million square feet of office space be constructed (and he considers that a moral mandate, not an economic one).
There are arguments to be made about the challenges of the site: it will be surrounded by construction for the next decade, and it really isn’t a great location. It was so successful before simply because it was one of the newest buildings close to the WTC. So it can be argued that there is no way to measure the potential for long-term recovery at this stage. But there is also a whiff of desperation in the act. When ground has been broken on a good half-dozen speculative commercial buildings of medium scale and above (which hasn’t happened since the 80’s), to be this close to completion without even the hint of a deal bodes ill. Sure, once the rest of the area is rebuilt it may be more palatable to commercial tenants, but the air of failure that surrounds half-empty buildings would be its own detriment.
Given that Rampe’s thesis is worthy of sharply questioning, the continued absence of tenants should be seen as justification for reopening the discussion of what the remaining sites, previously slated for commercial properties, could now become. The memorial is undergoing serious reworking, there’s some scuttlebutt about whether or not the four selected cultural institutions will be able to raise the money to hold their spots (and to satisfy the voracious appetite of Frank O. Gehry and Associates), so it’s fair to keep an open mind about the remainder of the site. What is sacrosanct about spec office space? And, given the recent travails of Silverstein, the real question might be: What is sacrosanct about unrentable spec office space?
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The memory of Olympia & York looms large.
Crain’s New York (print only) is reporting that Larry Silverstein dropped about $300,000 producing cloth-bound promotional brochures (at $150 a pop) for 7WTC, a property still unsullied by the grime of commerce. He’s got a good nine months or so to seal the deal — a deal — any deal. But he’s also got some 1.7 million square feet to deal with.
Now, as you can expect, and I’ve likely said before, I don’t give the proverbial rat’s ass about commercial real estate. Soul-crushing behemoths courtesy of David Childs and Ceasar Pelli, if we are lucky, that hasten the degradation of neighborhoods and haven’t trickled any benefits down into my pockets? No thanks. Sure, you can start with the half-assed Adam Smith lecture, but I don’t think my avocation of campaigning for the dismantling of speculative real estate is actually going to change anything, so leave me to my windmills. What is significant about this continued failing — mind you, we’re talking about Class A space that, allowing for still-available grants, rebates, and other post-9/11 assistance, nets out to less than 50% of what some boutique buildings are getting in Midtown, and a good 30% less than what larger blocks are going for — is how accurate a bellwether it will be for downtown recovery. Remember that Kevin Rampe, who still exerts a lot of pull, is adamant that another 7 to 10 million square feet of office space be constructed (and he considers that a moral mandate, not an economic one). There are arguments to be made about the challenges of the site: it will be surrounded by construction for the next decade, and it really isn’t a great location. It was so successful before simply because it was one of the newest buildings close to the WTC. So it can be argued that there is no way to measure the potential for long-term recovery at this stage. But there is also a whiff of desperation in the act. When ground has been broken on a good half-dozen speculative commercial buildings of medium scale and above (which hasn’t happened since the 80’s), to be this close to completion without even the hint of a deal bodes ill. Sure, once the rest of the area is rebuilt it may be more palatable to commercial tenants, but the air of failure that surrounds half-empty buildings would be its own detriment. Given that Rampe’s thesis is worthy of sharply questioning, the continued absence of tenants should be seen as justification for reopening the discussion of what the remaining sites, previously slated for commercial properties, could now become. The memorial is undergoing serious reworking, there’s some scuttlebutt about whether or not the four selected cultural institutions will be able to raise the money to hold their spots (and to satisfy the voracious appetite of Frank O. Gehry and Associates), so it’s fair to keep an open mind about the remainder of the site. What is sacrosanct about spec office space? And, given the recent travails of Silverstein, the real question might be: What is sacrosanct about unrentable spec office space?