Lower Manhattan’s revival is certainly not confined to development at the World Trade Center site; indeed, an array of new businesses have opened in the neighborhood in the 10 years since Sept. 11, the New York Post reported.

“[It’s] one of the greatest comeback stories in American history,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday, addressing business, government and cultural leaders at an Association for a Better New York breakfast on Wall Street. “And I believe it will stand as our greatest monument to those we lost on Sept. 11 and to our unshakable faith in the moral imperative of protecting and preserving a free, open, democratic society,”

Bloomberg noted that the Financial District has added more residents over the last 10 years than Atlanta, Dallas and Philadelphia combined. The growing population has encouraged the development of 19 new hotels, more retail outlets than existed before the World Trade Center attacks, and schools.  [more]

Lower Manhattan is one of the fastest-growing neighborhoods in the city, the Wall Street Journal reported. Once considered a purely commercial district, abandoned come closing time, some 56,000 people now live south of Chambers Street, double the number of residents than in 2001.
“After Sept. 11, downtown became a residential community,” said Tom Goodkind, a 22-year resident of Battery Park City. “It was odd.”
Government incentives have been an important strategy for keeping residents and drawing new ones to the Financial District, Goodkind said, as well as the ever-increasing pool of career opportunities in the area.

A report produced by pro-business group the Alliance for Downtown New York shows that Lower Manhattan has recovered almost all the jobs it lost after the 2001 attacks. [more]

Starwood Hotels & Resorts said it will open its fourth Four Points
by Sheraton hotel in the Financial District in 2013 under an existing
development agreement with the Lam Group.

The 264-room property, to be located at 6 Platt Street, will be the eighth Starwood
Property developed by the Lam Group and the fourth New York hotel to
open under the Four Points brand. John Lam, CEO of the firm, acquired the development site in 2007. The Lam Group has developed more than 20 hotels in New York over the past 10 years and currently owns and operates 10 properties. [more]

TF Cornerstone signed a 15-year lease to bring Potbelly Sandwich Shop, a Chicago culinary institution, to 2 Gold Street in the Financial District, the chain restaurant’s first New York location. Potbelly’s snapped up the last available retail space in the building, joining Pret-A-Manger, Goodburger, and Hot Clay Oven. Carl Wunderlich and Mike Stone of Cushman and Wakefield represented the landlord while Jeff Roseman, Marc Frankel and Ben Birnbaum of Newmark Knight Frank, represented the tenant in the transaction. TRD [more]

Source: Cassidy Turley

Manhattan office vacancy rate climbed in January, according to Cassidy Turley’s monthly market report, reaching 12.2 percent. This 20-basis-point climb, according to the report, is due in part to two major chunks of office real estate to hit the market last month: a 612,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by Pfizer at 685 Third Avenue between 43rd and 44th streets, and a 250,000-square-foot space at 1745 Broadway on the corner of 56th Street. The average asking rent, however, saw a slight month-over-month increase, reaching $48.12 per square foot from $47.66. TRD [more]

54 Bond StreetFrom the February issue: “It’s like being in the desert,” luxury broker Donna Olshan recently said
of the inventory in the high-end Downtown Manhattan market.
“There’s nothing to buy,” reiterated agent Alison Rogers of DG Neary
Realty, when the fourth-quarter Manhattan market reports were released.

The very beginning of the New Year is always a cyclical low point
for residential inventory in New York, as sellers pull their listings
from the market in the hopes of re-launching their efforts with vigor in
time for the spring buying season.
But this year’s January inventory trough was actually 5.8 percent
above its year-ago level, according to the real-time listings tracker on
UrbanDigs.com. And at press time, inventory had already risen by 6.5
percent in the three weeks since then. [more]

Images from inside 114 Liberty Street and Platinum Properties brokers Philip Askeroth and Daniel Hedaya (center, from left)

The largest available apartment for sale in the Financial District hit the market, according to Streeteasy.com. The 5,400-square-foot condominium at 114 Liberty Street near the corner of Greenwich Street is available for $6.39 million. The apartment, currently being marketed by Daniel Hedaya and Philip Askeroth of Platinum Properties, includes five bedrooms, four-and-a-half bathrooms, a fireplace and central air conditioning.

“It’s difficult to come by that size apartment in the Financial District,” Askeroth said, noting that its proximity to the new World Trade Center “makes it a good investment.” TRD [more]

Average rents in the Financial District improved across the board in 2010, up an average of 5 percent over 2009, according to Platinum Properties’ year-end report, released today (see full report after jump), which covers 2,371 closed lease transactions in the neighborhood by multiple brokerages. Studios and one- and two-bedroom units saw average rents of $2,314, $3,014 and $4,442, respectively, during 2010, representing climbs of 4.68 percent, 3.88 percent and 9.05 percent over 2009′s average rents. TRD [more]

From left: 85 Broad Street, 70 Pine Street, One New York Plaza and Elizabeth Berger, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York (left two photos, source: PropertyShark)

Lower Manhattan office leasing activity through the first three quarters of the year has continued to outpace 2009, according to the Alliance for Downtown New York’s quarterly real estate market overview, even as third-quarter data shows moderat [more]

Sharif El-Gamal

From the October issue: Sharif El-Gamal is the chairman and CEO of Manhattan-based real estate investment firm Soho Properties. But he’s now internationally known as the developer of Park51, a community center and Islamic prayer space planned two blocks from the World Trade Center site. The building — labeled the “ground zero mosque” by critics, a name that El-Gamal says is incorrect — has sparked a worldwide firestorm. In this month’s edition of “The Closing,” El-Gamal opens up about the Park51 controversy, receiving death threats and how he met his wife. (El-Gamal will be a special guest at The Real Deal’s sixth annual forum, “The Road to Recovery,” Wed., Oct. 13, 2010. Click here for more information.) [more]