Silverstein Properties is all set to open the first skyscraper at the new World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, but still has a monumental challenge ahead – filling about a million square feet of vacant space.
“We feel a real sense of accomplishment for having made it to This Place,” Silverstein’s president Janno Lieber, who is overseeing the 72-story 4 World Trade Center project at 150 Greenwich Street, told Bloomberg News. “It means the site is really becoming part of New York again.”
But the tower currently has only has two big government tenants – the Port Authority and the city’s Human Resources Administration — and will face intense competition from other new developments such as the Durst Organization’s One World Trade Center. Together, the two towers will add 2.4 million square feet of empty space to a Downtown market that is already feeling the effects of financial firms’ shrinking footprint, according to Bloomberg News.
“At the end of the day, supply and demand will determine what that space trades for,” Michael Cohen, tri-state regional president of Colliers International, told Bloomberg News. “You have three [Silverstein, Durst and Brookfield Office Properties] of the city’s most deep-pocketed and sophisticated landlords that will be going toe-to-toe. I look forward to observing the outcome.” [Bloomberg News] – Hiten Samtani