New incentive package targets tenants, brokers

While new rental buildings have been offering ever-increasing incentive packages to draw in tenants, an Upper West Side apartment development’s financial package is causing some to doubt their brokers’ intentions. The five-building complex, Columbus Square, designed by Costas Kondylis & Partners, on Columbus Avenue between 97th and 100th streets, is reportedly offering three months’ free rent and $1,000 bonuses to brokers who can facilitate leases and get people to move in by Oct. 15. Jeffrey Davis, Columbus Square’s project manager, said that encouraging both brokers and renters to look at the building could yield better results than wooing tenants alone. “In this market you have to be creative,” Davis said. “I figured if I could incentivize everybody I would get more deals done.”