Size isn’t everything: Durst courting smaller companies at 1 World Trade Center

Company still hopes to land another large tenant for property

Douglas Durst and 1 World Trade Center (Credit: Getty Images and SOM)
Douglas Durst and 1 World Trade Center (Credit: Getty Images and SOM)

Condé Nast may be the most famous tenant at 1 World Trade Center, but plenty of smaller companies are signing leases at the building as well.

As the Durst Organization searches for another major tenant to take as much as 400,000 square feet in the building, leasing smaller portions of the space has gradually raised its occupancy rate, according to Crain’s.

Durst reserved 360,000 square feet of prebuilt office space on nine floors of the 104-story tower ranging from a few thousand to 20,000 square feet. The company recently completed two five-year deals for this space: one with Fractal Analytics for 7,822 square feet on the 76th floor and one with real estate investment firm Group RMC Corp for 6,600 square feet on the 83rd floor.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Durst leasing executive Eric Engelhardt told Crain’s that roughly 75 percent of the prebuilt space is leased, and the company may set aside more floors for this type of space based on its popularity.

“Smaller tenants sometimes don’t have the wherewithal or desire to build out their own space,” he said. “We built these spaces because the market for small tenants is deeper and more active and we wanted to be able to engage that segment as part of our overall strategy for filling the building.” [Crain’s]Eddie Small