Brookfield Place

Global law firm Jones Day is close to signing a long-term lease for 400,000 square feet at Brookfield Place, formerly known as the World Financial Center, sources told Crain’s.

The Washington, D.C.-based firm would move from its Midtown office at 222 East 41st Street to a 34-story tower at 4 Brookfield Place, the website said. Real estate investment trust Brookfield Office Properties owns the 1.7 million-square-foot complex in the Financial District. [more]

The World Financial Center and Peter Poulakakos

The World Financial Center is set to see a toothsome new tenant. Restaurateur Peter Poulakakos, the operator of the Financier Patisserie coffee chain, has inked a deal for a 30,000-square-foot food marketplace and restaurant at the 8 million-square-foot, four-building complex, the New York Post reported. [more]

A rendering of the new retail shops at Brookfield Place

Brookfield Office Properties announced yesterday that it has inked deals with eight casual eateries for its marquee Brookfield Place complex.

The restaurants that have signed leases are: salad shop Chop’t Creative Salad Company; vegetable market Dig Inn Seasonal Market; Mexican eatery Dos Toros; grilled cheese shop Little Muenster; Cambodian sandwich shop Num Pang; pizzeria Skinny Pizza; dessert shop Sprinkles Cupcakes; and gourmet burger joint Umami Burger.  [more]

World Financial Center

Office owner giant Regus has signed a 40,000-square-foot lease encompassing the entire 24th floor of Brookfield Properties’ 3 World Financial Center, Crain’s reported. Regus will pay rents in the mid-$50s for the 10-year lease. Regus, which has 10 other locations around the city, including space at 254 Park Avenue, is also owned by Brookfield. [more]

World Financial Center In preparation for Brookfield Office Properties’ $250 million renovation of the World Financial Center, Cosi Sandwich Bar and the fashion jeweler Erwin Pearl have closed, according to the development’s website. The World Financial Center, located on the Hudson River waterfront in Lower Manhattan, contains more than eight million square feet of office space. The mammoth renovation effort aims to transform the center’s retail and public space into a shopping and dining destination with a European-style marketplace and waterfront dining…. [more]

From left: Wade McDevitt and the World Financial Center

Brookfield Office Properties is pushing back the opening of its revamped World Financial Center retail space by nearly a year, retail insiders say; the relaunch had been scheduled previously for the fall of 2013.

The reopening date for the vast majority of the 200,000-square-foot, $250 million retail project is now August 2014, sources familiar with Brookfield’s plans, said. Two small portions of the project, the dining terrace and the Pavillion, an underground passageway that connects the PATH train station to the World Financial Center, are still slated to open in 2013. [more]

The amount of space available in the Downtown market rose to its highest level in nearly two years, as more than 2.9 million square feet officially hit the leasing market, figures released today by commercial firm CBRE Group show.

As expected, the availability rate for the Downtown market rose in October to 13.7 percent, up from 10.6 percent in September with the addition of more than 2.5 million square feet of space at Brookfield Office Properties’ World Financial Center and other properties, falling within 12 months of availability last month, the CBRE reports says. [more]

From left: Mitch Rudin of Brookfield and the World Financial Center

Brookfield Financial has a new name in store for the World Financial Center located in Lower Manhattan, the New York Observer reported. The property will bear the name Brookfield Place, according to several unnamed sources, and the Observer said the change appears to be part of an effort to guide the complex’s image away from a place for financial tenants in a time of low leasing demand.

“It’s not going to happen overnight,” one unidentified source told the Observer. “But Brookfield plans to phase in the new name increasingly over time.” [more]

Green Street Advisors' Michael Knott (top), JLL's Peter Riguardi (bottom) and the World Financial Center

While industry insiders don’t expect Brookfield Office Properties to encounter many problems finding retailers for the revamped World Financial Center, the same can’t be said for the complex’s 3 million square feet of vacant office space. Brokers told the New York Times that the soft leasing market, competition from the World Trade Center and the consolidation of the area’s financial firm industry will pose challenges to the landlord no matter how appealing architect Cesar Pelli’s upgrades to the complex prove to be. [more]

Fulton Street Transit Center rendering

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is issuing a request for proposals Thursday to find a manager for 70,000 square feet of high-end retail space under construction at the Fulton Street Transit Center. While the Wall Street Journal noted that this is just some of the nearly 1 million square feet of new retail space being prepared for the area, retail brokers believe there is enough demand to fill the flood of new supply. [more]