From left: the Empire State Building, Steve Roth, William Mack, Sam Zell and the Capitol Building in DC

Some of the industry’s biggest names, William Mack, Steve Roth and Sam Zell, said the real estate markets in
New York City and Washington, D.C. have essentially recovered. The problem is the rest of the United
States.
During the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate’s annual REIT symposium at the
Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue yesterday, the industry giants gathered to share concern over America’s
future, particularly in terms of real estate.
In the past, Zell and Roth, the chairmen of Equity Investments Group and Vornado Realty Trust, respectively, said smaller markets roughly
followed the central ones, but that’s not the case in the current recovery. And that’s hurting the U.S. [more]

A growing number of New York City-based real estate firms are purchasing office buildings in the nation’s capital, according to Crain’s. The vacancy rate in Washington, D.C. is 11.2 percent — besting the national central business district average of 14.4 percent, and approaching Manhattan’s 10.5 percent rate. Meanwhile, leasing activity in Washington jumped 30 percent last year. As a result, Tishman Speyer, the Rockefeller Group, TF Cornerstone and TIAA-CREF have purchased office towers in Washington in recent months, and last month Rockrose Development Corp. spent $43 million for a 180,000-square-foot building at 1150 18th Street N.W. [more]

While New York City may be known for its pricey office space, that
paradigm could change soon. Washington, D.C. is inching closer to the
Big Apple in terms of price per square foot. The two cities have long-competed for the dubious title of most expensive city for office space, the Wall Street Journal reported, but rarely have the two been so closely neck-in-neck. While New York office
space’s price per square foot declined almost 20 percent
year-over-year, according to fourth-quarter data released by research
firm Reis, average rents in Washington dropped just 3 percent. In the
fourth quarter, New York City’s average office space rents hovered
around $45 per square foot in the fourth quarter, according to Reis,
while Washington rents were approximately $42 per square foot. The
disparity in office performance is based in large part on the two
cities’ divergent industries, according to Robert Bach, a chief
economist for Grubb & Ellis. “The financial crisis hit New York hard,
which is why it’s down so much, whereas the government is one of the
few sectors that has actually added jobs,” Bach said. This could lead
to an even tighter race between the two cities, price-wise, according
to Reis’ report. The firm estimates that Washington will actually
exceed the Big Apple in its average rent per square foot by about $.20
by the end of 2010.

New York City has fewer LEED-certified buildings than other cities, according to a study published today by New York City-based think tank Center for an Urban Future. New York City has 41 completed buildings with LEED ratings, fewer than Chicago, with 70 LEED buildings, Portland, with 63, Seattle, with 55, and Washington DC, with 47. The city has 455 projects that have applied for LEED certification, so the total number of certified buildings in the city may increase in the next several years, but some may never be completed due to the financial downturn, the report said. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been an advocate of environmentally-friendly development. New York City is still ahead of several other big cities, including Boston, which has 33 LEED certified buildings, and Los Angeles, which has 32. Of the New York City boroughs, Manhattan has the largest number of LEED certified buildings, with 31. TRD [more]