Lower Manhattan landlords shift focus to technology tenants as financial sector sputters

With larger financial companies still shrinking, landlords in Lower Manhattan have shifted their marketing away from their traditional tenants and are now courting the media and technology tenants that have been pushing up rents in the Midtown South market, Bloomberg News reported.

Facing a massive glut of space as Nomura departs Brookfield Office Properties’ Brookfield Place, in tandem with the hundreds of thousands of square feet available at the World Trade Center towers, landlords have had to switch out the gold and marble splendor that attracted the finance crowd for hipper amenities such as bike parking and electric car-charging stations.

At Brookfield Place, formerly known as the World Financial Center, massive tinted windows that were installed for traders’ privacy have been removed in favor of glass, highlighting the view, Bloomberg said.

At 1 World Trade Center, tenants have the option to leave the duct work exposed, echoing the look of converted Midtown South loft-like spaces often popular with tech tenants, Cushman & Wakefield’s Tara Stacom, who is handling leasing at the space, told Bloomberg.

Still, by mid-2014, an estimated 6 million square feet of empty office space will be awaiting tenants Downtown.

“[The tech] sector still lacks the heft to fill the void,” Steven Coutts, a broker with commercial brokerage Studley, told Bloomberg. [Bloomberg News] –-Guelda Voien