Stalled commercial towers primed to hit the market at perfect time

During the depths of the financial crisis, developers reconsidered and re-imagined their shelved projects, and now, construction is resuming on some of the city’s most anticipated towers, according to the New York Times. Brookfield Office Properties spent construction delays re-engineering a cheaper way to build a deck overlooking the rail yards as it prepares several towers for its 5.4-million-square-foot lot between Ninth and Dyer avenues and West 33rd and 31st streets. Pacolet Milliken Enterprises demolished an entire block along Sixth Avenue between 39th and 40th streets before the downturn, and has now completed the design for a 350,000-square-foot office building at the site. Meanwhile, Boston Properties is relaunching construction on a 1 million-square-foot tower at 250 West 55th Street, Vornado Realty Trust said it would consider beginning construction on a 1.25-million-square-foot tower, 20 Times Square, on top of the Port Authority Bus Terminal without an anchor tenant and Edward J. Miskoff Equities will break ground on 51 Astor Place this summer. These office buildings could be hit the market at the perfect time, as leasing activity in the $90-plus per square foot segment has picked up and vacancy rates are plummeting. And the current stock isn’t getting any younger. A recent Cassidy Turley survey that found 83 percent of Manhattan office buildings are at least 30 years old, and they won’t be getting any younger as these projects near completion. [NYT]