In an article that appears in this week’s edition of Real Estate Weekly (but is not available online), Stephen Pozycki, head of New Jersey-based SJP Properties, discusses the state of the New York City commercial real estate market in light of the recent U.S. economic woes. SJP, as you may recall, is building the speculative, LEED Silver 11 Times Square at the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue (just across the street from the New York Times Tower).
Last fall, we discussed the project in the context of the subprime lending meltdown and what it might mean for green building generally. Pozycki told Real Estate Weekly that he expects the tower to be half-filled with tenants by summer and that “[t]here’s just not many of these new green buildings that are being built in the city.” He noted the lack of available space in new green towers from the Times, Hearst, Bank of America, and also pointed to Boston Properties’ plans for a LEED Gold building, targeted specifically for law firms, at West 55th Street. (Renderings of the Skidmore Owings & Merrill-designed building, which has already secured two long-term leases with Gibson Dunn and Proskauer Rose, were just released earlier this week). “Tenants will come [to 11 Times Square],” he said.
The article also suggests that the similarly speculative 510 Madison Avenue may also able to survive an economic downturn thanks to its target roster of high end financial services tenants. Nevertheless, SJP is in the position to stop construction and wait until it secures an anchor tenant, as the tower has yet to get out of the ground, but Pozycki remains confident that it will open up as scheduled in the summer of 2009. Coupled with the new Boston Properties tower, 8th Avenue’s transformation into Midtown’s sustainable thoroughfare looks like it will continue to move forward as expected, despite the continued market uncertainty.
- 11 Times Square and the Subprime Meltdown (gbNYC)
- 510 Madison Avenue (gbNYC)
- Rendering of 250 W. 55th Revealed (Real Deal)
Please note that SJP Properties will seek LEED Gold certification for 11 Times Square, not Silver as stated here. Also, the project is ahead of schedule with steel to be delivered to the site over the next few weeks.
I would also like to add, which was not stated in the article, that FXFOWLE ARCHITECTS designed the building.
Thanks to both of you for the clarifications- I believe we noted that 11 Times Square is an FXFOWLE project in the very first post we wrote about the development last January, though that piece is not linked above.