Empire State Building
The financial reform bill finalized in Congress last week is impeding the recovery of New York City’s suffering office market, the Wall Street Journal reported. Major financial firms accounted for about 46 million square feet of Manhattan office space two years ago, enough to fill up more than 16 Empire State Buildings, according to CoStar. But the finance bill, which is set for a vote this week, may force big banks to cut back their proprietary trading units and reduce investments. Though most Wall Street firms have recovered, they aren’t hiring enough to make up for the tens of thousands of jobs lost and millions of square feet of office space they abandoned during the banking crisis in 2008 and 2009. Companies are still dumping big
blocks of space on the market, like the 500,000 square feet in the former headquarters of American International Group at 70 Pine Street.
[WSJ]