Steve Cuozzo reported earlier this week in the Post that Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) is heading downtown from West 57th Street to sublease 58,000 square feet on the 30th and 31st floors of 7 World Trade Center from Dutch bank ABN Amro, which signed up for 140,000 square feet 3 years ago but never moved into the space. Italian insurer Generali will take 17,000 square feet from ABN, and two undisclosed financial services firms are close to signing deals for the remaining space. Cuozzo notes these transactions in the context of 7 World Trade Center's "continued appeal even as demand for downtown office space has lagged amid expectations that huge amounts of space will soon be put up for grabs by such firms as Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch." How much of that appeal stems from its LEED certification is difficult to quantify, but it's clear that Larry Silverstein is enjoying a competitive advantage in an incredibly challenging commercial leasing market thanks, in some part, to his tower's green design features.
