A week on, 10 percent of FiDi office space remains shuttered: JLL chief

Some 10 million to 15 million square feet of office space in Lower Manhattan has been taken offline by Hurricane Sandy. More than 10 percent of the Financial District’s 94 million square feet,  according to Jones Lang LaSalle tristate CEO Peter Riguardi, the New York Post reported. As The Real Deal told you last week, 1 New York Plaza and 55 Water Street, are just two examples of major downtown addresses where companies have been forced to leave by storm damage.

While 1 New York Plaza tenants Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and the law firm Fried Frank where tight-lipped about where they had relocated, Citigroup told its employees at 388 and 390 Greenwich Street to return to work yesterday. However without steam restored to its building it warned workers to  “be prepared for cooler temperatures and dress accordingly.”

Citi wasn’t as lucky at its 1 million square-foot 111 Wall Street office building, where it told employees that the building would remain closed until further notice, as TRD reported. Last week, a TRD survey found that some 17 million square feet of office space downtown had been impacted by Hurricane Sandy, though some of those buildings have since reopened.

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But Real Estate Board of New York President Steven Spinola argued that Riguardi’s 10 million to 15 million figure seemed “high.”  “Downtown already looks a lot different than it did on Friday,” he said, noting that several buildings such as 55 Broad Street have reopened. [NYP]Christopher Cameron