Day in the life of: Jeremy Moss

Jeremy Moss, 44, is an executive vice president and the head of leasing at Silverstein Properties, which means his life mostly revolves around Lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center these days. The private real estate firm, founded by Larry Silverstein in 1957, is the leading sponsor of the six-tower redevelopment project — which has overcome several notable setbacks — and has inked leases with a handful of growing office tenants in recent years. Those deals include a roughly 564,000-square-foot lease for Spotify, an 87,000-square-foot lease for British spirits company Diageo and a 30,000-square-foot lease for wedding-planning startup Zola at three of the new towers. Silverstein also recently purchased ABC’s Upper West Side campus for $1.15 billion, though Moss is not involved in leasing space there. Moss, who joined Silverstein in 2008 after spending eight years at Forest City Ratner, oversees a portfolio of 10 commercial properties, including the World Trade complex. But his involvement in Lower Manhattan extends beyond just finding office tenants. The New York City native is on the board of the Downtown Alliance, the area’s business improvement district, and often meets with his team for breakfast at the local Gee Whiz Diner, which he said helps keep them grounded and connected to the neighborhood. “Real estate is not an inward-facing business,” he said. “You can’t quietly own a 50-story building. You really have to engage with your neighbors.” Moss, a bachelor, lives close to his older sister in the West Village and sees her most mornings at the gym before heading to work.

6:00 a.m. I wake up and begin the day with a cup of Colombian coffee. My mother is actually from Colombia — after World War II, that side of my family escaped Europe and moved to South America before coming to the United States — so there’s great comfort in starting the day with that. My inbox is full, so in order for me to go to the gym and not be totally distracted, I will try to respond to a few of the emails that have accumulated over the night.

6:30 a.m. I do a one-hour workout at Equinox. I usually do high-intensity interval training. I find that that kind of a workout prepares me for what the day is going to bring. I typically run into my sister. She’s actually a nationally ranked power lifter, so I try not to work out next to her because it doesn’t make me look great, but I’ll always give her a hug before I head out.

8:30 a.m. We have a team meeting at 7 World Trade Center over breakfast. We’ll cover our whole portfolio and prioritize the things that need our immediate attention in the coming week. But after a few cups of coffee, the conversation can often shift to what shows people are binging on.

9:15 a.m. I grab another coffee at Blue Bottle. The first one wakes me up. The rest keep me going.

9:30 a.m. I head back to my desk to review term sheets for prospective tenants. Term sheets used to just be about rent and tenant improvement allowances. Today, they’re about bringing pets and bicycles into office buildings. And the thing that we see most is a need for growth space. Companies want to know that when they move into a building, they’ll be able to grow indefinitely.

10:30 a.m. I meet with the Downtown Alliance, where I sit on the board. The mission is really about making the area a better place for residents, for workers and for tourists. It’s nice to have the ability to think of Lower Manhattan in a more holistic way and to partner with a lot of the other stakeholders.

4 World Trade Center

11:30 a.m. I stop by Spotify’s new space at 4 World Trade Center. They’ve been in the process of moving in over the last few months, and I stop in periodically just to see how they’re doing. I check on all of our tenants on a regular basis.

12:00 p.m. I eat lunch with Larry Silverstein in his office fairly regularly. We’ll talk about business, and then we always save a little bit of time for personal stuff. He’s always trying to set anyone up who’s single. He even has a business card that says, “Larry Silverstein: Matchmaker.” [Moss declined to comment on whether he takes up his boss’ offers.]

1:30 p.m. I have an afternoon building tour with a prospective tenant. When someone comes in to look at your building, it’s important that ownership is there. It’s like meeting the person who built your car: You want to know who’s going to be taking care of you for the next 10 or 15 years.

3:00 p.m. I meet with Westfield [which owns and operates the complex’s shopping center] to discuss programming and collaborations. We’ve been working with them to make sure Smorgasburg becomes a new permanent feature of the World Trade Center.

4:15 p.m. I spend time returning calls from brokers at CBRE and other firms interested in spaces — everything from a 2,000-foot need to a 200,000-foot need. Brokers are our lifeblood.

5:00 p.m. I check in with the leasing team. There are about six members, and they know that I’m available to them 24/7.

John Legend

5:30 p.m. I check in with the marketing team to discuss art shows, photo shoots, film shoots and other special events. Our events, I think, number in the hundreds at this point, and they give people a window into Lower Manhattan… The fashion shows are always fun. When John Legend played in the Oculus, that was pretty exciting.

6:30 p.m. I have a site meeting for Brooklyn Boatworks, an after-school boatbuilding and sailing program where I’m a board member. One of my best friends from growing up founded it as a way for kids to understand math and science, work with their hands and develop some real-life skills. There was one story I remember where a young female student’s father, who was a handyman, told her that women were not supposed to be working with tools. After he came in and saw what she was able to do, he changed his tune.

8:00 p.m. A lot of nights I’ll try to get together with some of the brokers we do business with. It seems like there’s an event almost every night in our business, and I don’t realize that home is comfortable until I’m actually there. When I am home, I enjoy it, but we’re in a great city. There are things to do 24 hours a day, and I like to take full advantage of that.

11:00 p.m. I go home and spend a little time reading leases and actually doing quiet work, since the rest of the day is not quiet enough.

12:00 a.m. Lights out. I usually get about six hours of sleep. I know medical professionals say we need eight, so I’m going to have to try to bridge that gap somehow. For now, I’m relying on Colombian coffee.