By Patrick Hedlund
Hud. Sq. leads office market Office leasing in Midtown South outpaced its monthly average for the first time this year, with signings in the Hudson Square/Tribeca area leading the way, while the Downtown market remained steady, according to a market report by CB Richard Ellis.
In May, tenants took a total of 370,000 square feet in Midtown South, 16 percent ahead of the five-year monthly average of 320,000 square feet. Downtown dropped 64 percent from its five-year monthly average, from 440,000 square feet to 160,000 square feet in May.
For the cluster of neighborhoods constituting Midtown South — which also includes Park Ave. South/Madison Square, Chelsea, Flatiron, Union Square, and Noho/Soho — Hudson Square/Tribeca accounted for 60 percent of the entire area’s leasing activity (220,000 square feet). The majority of that figure came from Newsweek’s inking of a deal for 165,000 square feet in May; however, the subdistrict’s availability rate remained disproportionately high for the area.
Noho/Soho had the area’s highest rents at $60.12 per square foot, an $0.82 drop from the month prior, but experienced no leasing activity throughout May.
Farther Downtown — an area made up of the subdistricts City Hall, Financial and World Financial Center — the Financial subdistrict outpaced the others with 100,000 total square feet of singings, including a pair of deals on Broad St. totaling over 32,500 square feet.
Overall asking rents Downtown increased in May to $49.70, a $0.27 increase from the month prior, with the World Financial District carrying the area’s highest rents at $72.80 per square foot.
The $300,000 question The campaign to restore $300,000 in additional funds to the city budget for the Landmarks Preservation Commission ultimately proved successful for preservation advocates—but their attempts to get confirmation of the allocation was a little harder to come by.
The initial word from organizers and elected officials was that the funds, which would have retained six current positions on the L.P.C. staff, had not been earmarked after a community push for the allocations in the City Council budget. However, according to the New York Landmarks Conservancy, the money has been included in the budget, just not in the published “Schedule ‘C’” section.
“I think it’s at level funding from last year,” Peg Breen, president of the Landmarks Conservancy, told Mixed Use on Tuesday about the $300,00 restoration, “but were trying to confirm it.”
Preservation advocates Andrew Berman, president of the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation, Simeon Bankoff, director of the Historic Districts Council, and a representative from Councilmember Jessica Lappin’s office, who helped advocate for the funding, were all similarly confused earlier this week as to whether or not the money had made it into the budget. Not even the commission could confirm the funding, with a spokesperson from the L.P.C. unable to provide comment. Eventually, a spokesperson from the city’s Office of Management and Budget verified late Wednesday that the funds had in fact been restored.
“We were getting some real results from this money,” said Queens Couniclmember and mayoral candidate Tony Avella, another advocate. “The L.P.C. budget is very small, and $300,000 is nothing, but in terms of their budget it’s a lot.”
Some have speculated that immediately publicizing the allocation might have upset other organizations not benefiting from their own sought-after funds in the budget.
“We hope it’s true, and if so, we regard this as a great triumph for making the administration and the city agencies aware of how important the work of this agency is,” Bankoff added.
Trump stumps abroad Donald Trump’s controversial condo-hotel development Trump Soho has gotten its fair share of ink in this and other publications, but now the broadsheets abroad have started reporting on the project’s progress and its courtship of foreign buyers.
The U.K.’s Sunday Times newspaper recently ran a story profiling the embattled development’s saga, from a construction worker’s death earlier this year to the 120-day-stay zoning requirements, as well as the Trump kids’ taking of the reins to promote the 42-story building worldwide.
Curbed.com’s tireless coverage of the project noted that the Times article quoted Trump scion Ivanka as saying the building is currently 60 percent sold — a 7 percent increase from the 53 percent figure offered in both February and April, the blog reported. “We are in a very fortunate position where we have enough sales and now we are very strategically targeting certain buyers,” Ivanka added to the Times.
Meanwhile, construction work continues at the site of the building on Spring St., with glass being added recently on its Varick St. frontage. Construction workers have also started wearing bright-yellow vests with “Incident and Injury Free” emblazoned on the back, compliments of project general contractor Bovis Lend Lease, which workers started sporting after the fatal accident in January.
mixeduse@communitymediallc.com
