Tech tenants hunting for old NYC buildings, bandwidth:VIDEO

Downtown Wall Street proving less appealing to IT companies

From left: Jack Hidary, Anthony Malkin and Paul Amrich
From left: Jack Hidary, Anthony Malkin and Paul Amrich

The two emerging centers for tech office tenants in the city are the Manhattan corridor spanning 14th StreetThrough 42nd Street, and Downtown Brooklyn, said former Dice Inc. CEO Jack Hidary on Bloomberg TV’s “In the Loop.”

Tech firms are looking for a central location and high-speed bandwidth in the building. But, according to CBRE’s Paul Amrich, they are increasingly interested in older properties – ones with a high terra-cotta barreled ceiling, exposed steel and polished concrete. Downtown Wall Street as an office market has proven less appealing to those companies than previously expected.

“There are some tech companies there, but it’s not really taking off the way people thought it would maybe four or five years ago,” Hidary said.

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Anthony Malkin of Malkin Holdings said location was key in drawing LinkedIn and Shutterstock to the Empire State Building. He said what sets his property apart from Hudson Yards for those tenants is that prices per square foot are $25 to $35 higher.

“We’re almost equidistant to everything,” Malkin said. [Bloomberg]Mark Maurer