All Posts Tagged With: "11 Times Square"

According to Crain’s, British Telecommunications has inked a 15-year lease for 63,000 square feet of space at the New York Times Tower on Eighth Avenue at $95 per square foot. British Telecom is subleasing space on the 45th and 46th floors from investment firm ClearBridge Advisors, though the latter never occupied the space that British Telecom will take over. ClearBridge will remain in its existing space on the 47th through 50th floors. The deal follows a number of reports over the past month that financial services firms across the city have been shedding space that’s now unnecessary given the market downturn.

In early February, we noted an interview that SJP Properties’ Stephen Pozycki gave to Real Estate Weekly about progress at LEED Gold hopeful 11 Times Square, which is currently under construction at the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. “Tenants will come,” Pozycki said at the time, while also expressing his expectation that the tower would be half-leased come summer. Despite the softening market, it appears that Mr. Pozycki’s prediction may prove prescient, as Real Estate Weekly reported this week that the French bank Natixis is considering up to 250,000 square feet at 11 Times Square. The bank is apparently conducting test fit-outs but has yet to commit to occupying space at the tower. Natixis currently leases space in a number of Midtown trophy buildings- including 9 West 57th Street and 1350 Avenue of the Americas- that it wants to consolidate into one similarly prestigious space- LEED Gold, even on 8th Avenue, appears to meet that litmus test.

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.

New Jersey-based developer SJP Properties, whose first commercial foray into the Manhattan real estate market at LEED Silver hopeful 11 Times Square is two months ahead of schedule, is also developing the Waterfront Corporate Center III (”WCC III”) across the Hudson River in Hoboken (middle building in the image to the left). Also a speculative [...]

Over the past couple of weeks, it’s been impossible to ignore the economic doomsday scenarios that pundits have been tossing about in the wake of several high profile bankruptcy declarations by subprime lenders like American Home Mortgage (as well as the $11.5 billion loan obtained by Countrywide Financial to bolster its cash reserves). So, should [...]