The former ESPN Zone retail space at the Durst Organization’s 4 Times Square — the Conde Nast building, at least for a few more years — is back on the market for the first time since 1998. According to the Observer, the Dursts have already begun showing the 45,000-square-foot space, at 42nd Street and Broadway, to prospective tenants, though they plan to formally launch it at the ICSC retail trade show in Las Vegas next month. Since ESPN Zone shuttered last spring, Disney has been using the space, which contains three full floors and 185 feet of street frontage. [more]

From the December issue: It’s the home of major media companies such as Viacom, the New York Times, Condé Nast, Reuters, Bertelsmann and Universal Music Group; broadcast studios for ABC, MTV, NASDAQ and others; headquarters of Morgan Stanley and law firms such as Proskauer Rose, Skadden Arps and Cravath Swaine & Moore. One-quarter of all hotels in Manhattan are there, along with Broadway theaters and some of the best retail in the world. And, oh, tens of millions of visitors annually come by.

So before the world’s eyes turn to Times Square for New Year’s Eve, it seemed like a good time to consider the state of the office market in the city’s most famous district. After all, some 200,000 people work in Times Square, 70 percent of them in finance and creative fields.

Let’s use the Times Square Alliance’s borders for the district: 40th Street to 53rd Street between Sixth and Eighth avenues, as well as Restaurant Row (46th Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues). [more]

675 Third Avenue

The Durst Organization signed a nearly 12,000-square-foot lease for Staples at its 32-story building at [more]

Bank of New York Mellon is poised to snatch up 450,000 square feet at 1
World Trade Center, according to the New York Post. While the bank has
to wait for the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey to finish
negotiations with newly announced investment partner the Durst Organization
before it can begin formally pursuing the space, insiders say a
transition plan is already in the works. If Mellon does move into the
1,776-foot tall tower, it would sell its current headquarters at 1 Wall
Street and move some of its workforce to another building it owns at
101 Barclay Street. While Peter Riguardi, president of Jones Lang
LaSalle and Mellon’s real estate broker, declined to comment on the
deal, he noted that Durst’s selection “shows how much people think of
this site.” [Post]

[more]

From left: Douglas Durst, a rendering of One World Trade Center, Stephen Ross

With Boston Properties out of the picture in the bidding for a partnership stake in the 1,776-foot-tall One World Trade Center, just the Durst Organization and the Related Companies are left vying for the spot. “It’s a runoff between two different prototypes in the New York industry,” Kathryn Wylde, chief executive of the Partnership for New York City, told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s the family-owned, multigenerational firm that the Dursts have built up on the one hand…and a model for an international, professionally run real-estate firm that Steve Ross has built at Related.” The board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will ultimately pick the winner, which will manage and market the building’s 2.6 million square feet of office space — about 1 million of which is already spoken for by government agencies — and will invest at least $100 million in the Ground Zero project formerly known as the Freedom Tower. The board is slated to meet with each developer over the next two weeks and to reach a decision by June 22. [WSJ] 

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Peter Riguardi, president of Jones Lang LaSalle’s New York operations, isn’t worried about furthering the glut of Manhattan office space with the addition of Ground Zero office space including One World Trade Center, where his firm is handling negotiations with prospective naming partners. “I think this market has flourished around 420 million square feet,” Riguardi said. “It could easily add 10 million or more to it.” A decision on whether the Durst Organization, Boston Properties, the Related Companies or Hines Interests will win the coveted partnership will likely come by the summer, he added. [NYT] 

[more]

One Bryant Park

One Bryant Park is the first commercial office tower in the U.S. to achieve LEED Platinum certification, the U.S. Green Building Council, the Durst Organization and Bank of America announced today. The 55-story, 2.1 million-square-foot skyscraper on Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street, also known as the Bank of America Tower, was designed by Cook + Fox Architects with an on-site cogeneration plant, ice storage system, “high-performance glass curtain wall” and an “advanced under-floor air delivery system.” The building was refinanced with a $1.28 billion three-year loan in June, in what was believed to be one of the largest single, private financing deals since the 2007 credit market freeze. The co-owners are reportedly nearing a deal to refinance the tower again with a 10-year, $1.3 billion loan from JPMorgan Chase. TRD

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Bank of America is nearing a deal to refinance its eponymous tower at One Bryant Park for the second time in just 10 months, Crain’s reported. The 51-story office tower was last refinanced with a $1.28 billion three-year loan in June, in what was believed to be one of the largest single, private financing deals since the 2007 credit market freeze. This time around, the bank and its co-owner, the Durst Organization, are looking to obtain a 10-year, $1.3 billion loan from JPMorgan Chase. [more]

Donald Trump is reportedly weighing an entry into the 1 World Trade Center bidding fray after visiting the site with sons Donald Jr. and Eric and daughter Ivanka last month to discuss a potential $100 million offer. Sources told the Post that while Trump’s good track record with finishing projects on schedule and working with unions makes him an attractive candidate from the perspective of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, the Donald himself isn’t yet convinced that he wants the project. As one source put it, “Trump loves the concept [of owning what was being called the Freedom Tower], but doesn’t know where the tenants would come from — and it’s such a target. He keeps saying, ‘There’s a big red target painted on it.’” If Trump does wind up making an offer, he’ll be joining the likes of Brookfield Properties, Vornado Realty Trust, Related Companies, the Durst Organization, Boston Properties and Hines Interests, all of which are said to have submitted proposals. The Port Authority wants the eventual owner to oversee construction and to finish leasing and managing the 1,776-foot-tall property. [Post]

Chart clarification: While CBRE data puts Durst’s portfolio at 7.2 million square feet, a Durst spokesperson later said that figure is actually 9 million.

Asking rents plunged for some of Midtown’s top landlords last year as they competed for the few tenants searching for space in a weak leasing market, but their reductions helped keep their vacancy rates below the market average, experts said. The family-owned Durst Organization dropped its asking rents to $60.82 per square foot in November 2009 from $113.15 per square foot in August 2008, near the pricing peak of the leasing market, according to the most recent data available on Midtown’s top 10 landlords from commercial services firm CB Richard Ellis. The Real Deal compared data from August 2008 to November 2009 for the top 10 landlords in Midtown ranked by square feet owned. The 46 percent decline was the steepest among Midtown’s top 10 landlords, who control 93 million square feet, or about 41 percent of the market. Landlord and tenant leasing broker Cynthia Wasserberger, a managing director at commercial firm Jones Lang LaSalle said the landlords cut prices to attract tenants and keep their buildings filled. “I think all the landlords got aggressive. They were pretty swift in their decision to respond to the market,” Wasserberger said. [more]