Don’t worry about vacancies at One World Trade: OPINION

Fears of attack, competition in Midtown and New Jersey and a tech tower aversion drag leasing

One World Trade Center
One World Trade Center

New Yorkers should not fret over vacant offices at One World Trade Center. The city has seen this movie before.

While the Durst Organization and the Port Authority cut asking rents for office space in the tower by 10 percent last month, the situation is looking less dire than it was when the Twin Towers first went on the market, Justin Davidson wrote for New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer. Back then, it took decades and considerable buy-in from government agencies to fill the space.

There are numerous reasons for the slow pace of leasing, not least among them that many still view One World Trade as a terror target, Davidson wrote. But fears will abate as years go by without major incident, he opined.

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Beyond that, the Financial District has always competed with Midtown, which today is developing westward to the banks of the Hudson River. Add competition from Hoboken and New Jersey, as well as the penchant among tech firms to occupy the city’s older office stock, and it’s no wonder prices in the tower are falling.

Davidson also pointed out that “megatowers, like people, are conceived in states of irrational optimism and born into a more complicated world.” [NY Mag]Tom DiChristopher