Trump fills 40 Wall Street with low rents, incentives

Thanks to aggressive leasing deals, Donald Trump again has managed to improve 40 Wall Street‘s value, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Leases for more than 600,000 square feet worth of space at the 1.3 million-square-foot office tower were set to expire in 2009, yet in the last six months the Trump Organization has managed to fill two-thirds of that space in a tepid office leasing environment.

The leasing effort,  spearheaded by Cushman & Wakefield’s Jeffrey Lichtenberg and overseen by Donald Trump, Jr., has succeeded by reaching out to non-financial companies and offering them incentive-laden deals with low rents. Recently signed tenants include the Harry Fox Agency, Huron Consulting, Duane Reade’s corporate offices and engineering firms Weidlinger Associates and Leslie E. Robertson Associates.

For Trump, the Journal noted, this marks the second repositioning of the office tower he bought for $10 million about 15 years ago. At the time, the building was being abandoned by tenants and falling into disrepair amidst the struggling economy. But Trump poured $35 million into rehabilitating the 72-story tower and lured tenants like Bear Stearns and American Express for rents of about $27 per square-foot. More than a decade later, the asking price has been pushed up to $33 to $50 per square-foot, but actual starting rents are essentially unchanged, according to the Journal. [WSJ]