Last year, the most expensive co-op sale on record occurred in Manhattan and a group of investors paid more for the GM Building than anyone ever paid for a U.S. Office tower. But most regard 2008’s records, which The Real Deal details as part of a series, as footnotes, rather than the main stories of the year.
That’s because, as our year in review recounts, after Wall Street collapsed in September, the key question became: how low will the city’s commercial and housing markets go? In our Q & A, residential and commercial players say they are bracing for a brutal year. On the commercial side, the consensus is the already elevated vacancy rate will increase further as the financial industry suffers and office space is dumped.