WTC developer Larry Silverstein has exercised an option which will give him a tenant to rent 582,000 square foot of space at 4 World Trade Center at the rate of $56.50. And guess who will be paying it? You—because the tenant is the City of NYC. The Post reported that the deal is from five years ago, when Mayor Bloomberg negotiated with Silverstein to help (or as the Post puts it, "prop up the troubled") redevelopment of WTC. The cost is "below the top-end office market in lower Manhattan, but well above what the city usually pays for lower-quality space."
The building, designed by Fumihiko Maki, is at 150 Greenwich Street and will be 975 feet tall and 64 stories. The Post points out the irony of timing of the announcement, because the city is in cost-cutting mode and trying to get rid of 400,000 unused square feet—the rent at 250 Broadway, where the City Council has offices, is $35.07/square foot. A commercial services firm executive thinks the city is getting a good deal on "trophy space," but wonders if the city really needs it.
The deal would make the 14 floors of space available to the city in 2014, and the initial lease is for 15 years. A mayoral spokesman, Andrew Brent, told the AP, "The city’s commitment to take space back in 2006 was one of the key steps that enabled development to move forward."
