NEW YORK | 200 Greenwich - 2 WTC | 1,270 FT | 80 FLOORS | ON HOLD

[NYguy]

NOVEMBER 25, 2023


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[NewYorkCity76]

Per BA178 via Yimby Forums:

Found something relevant in this internship opening at the Port Authority, which names this building specifically: https://www.jointheportauthority.com...nd-development 13

“The Major Capital Projects Department has overall program management responsibility for the development of the World Trade Center Campus, including capital construction of campus infrastructure and oversight of tenant construction including new buildings like as 2 World Trade Center.”

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by NewYorkCity76

Per BA178 via Yimby Forums:

Found something relevant in this internship opening at the Port Authority, which names this building specifically: https://www.jointheportauthority.com...nd-development 13

“The Major Capital Projects Department has overall program management responsibility for the development of the World Trade Center Campus, including capital construction of campus infrastructure and oversight of tenant construction including new buildings like as 2 World Trade Center.”

Makes sense. All of the WTC infrastructure is connected, and it's a reason why they had to at least build the lower levels of tower 2.

[Xing Lin]

The Foster design fitting in nicely (IMO) with the rest of 'Greenwich Row':

Original photo by Fabio Achilli

[McSky]

[mrnyc]

^ naahhh!

[worldtrade2021]

Originally Posted by Xing Lin

The Foster design fitting in nicely (IMO) with the rest of 'Greenwich Row':

Original photo by Fabio Achilli

Even if they continue to make slight changes to the design, they should definitely keep the look of the building from this angle. As TK2000 said on New York YIMBY forums, it evokes a sense of a view of the original twin towers, with the placement of the open terraces mimicking the placement of the mechanical floors in the twin towers. Also as MarshallKnight said, the offset west facades resemble the offset silhouette configuration of the twin towers.

[newyorker]

Originally Posted by McSky

Yup!

[NYguy]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/n...ought-nyc.html


By Matthew Haag
Dec. 28, 2023,

…Despite the headwinds, many office developers are still eager to build the next supertall tower. They believe the pandemic has accelerated a so-called flight to quality — companies upgrading to the latest, greatest offices.

They point to the new JPMorgan Chase Building on Park Avenue and One Vanderbilt, the 1,401-foot-tall tower next to Grand Central Terminal that opened in 2020. One Vanderbilt is more than 99 percent leased, with some tenants paying $150 per square foot and more.

“When JPMorgan builds this brand-new headquarters, the competitors of JPMorgan will want to be in that type of space as well,” said Scott Rechler, the chief executive of RXR, a real estate company.

RXR has proposed one of the largest of the office buildings yet to start construction, at 175 Park Avenue, on the site of a Grand Hyatt hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Mr. Rechler hopes to break ground next year, but the tower needs an anchor tenant, a large company that could commit to leasing about a quarter of it, which would be roughly 500,000 square feet.

Another developer, Silverstein Properties, has been searching roughly 15 years for an anchor tenant for 2 World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. Also waiting is BXP, the real estate investment trust formerly known as Boston Properties, which plans to build a roughly 900,000-square-foot tower on Madison Avenue.

A handful of significantly smaller office buildings in Manhattan, which are mostly between 15 and 25 stories tall, are being built without tenants already lined up. Real estate analysts say those buildings carry far less risk for lenders and do not face the same hurdles as large developments.

[TonyL]

I am still of the opinion that Hudson Yards killed this tower.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by TonyL

I am still of the opinion that Hudson Yards killed this tower.

Sure, but that's wrong. None of the companies that moved to the Hudson Yards were going to move here. Companies will move here. Just look at the WTC towers that have filled up. But Downtown has always been a different thing from Midtown. Hudson Yards itself, though removed from central Midtown, is still Midtown. All it needed was a single subway line. The WTC has plenty of rail access, yet some companies will never move Downtown, and some that are Downtown already could still see Midtown as the bigger draw. But that's ok. It's the reason the WTC was built in the first place. Just ask yourself, other than the WTC, what other major office projects are planned for Downtown? None. And when this is built, there will be no planned major office developments. Midtown meanwhile, will continue to offer options for new office space construction. That's why I believe it was shortsighted to make Tower 5 residential just for the sake of building. You could make the argument that towers 3 and 4 "killed" this one, or at least put it to sleep.


Just some food for thought, here's an example of another large lease signing, but not in one of the new or planned office towers...


https://www.ft.com/content/f2849309-...6-2aa6bfcc69fc

Law firm Paul Weiss signs biggest US office lease of 2023 in Manhattan
Move underscores group’s booming growth and is a welcome sign for the city’s commercial real estate market





Joe Miller and Joshua Chaffin
DECEMBER 21 2023

US law firm Paul Weiss has signed the largest commercial office lease in the country this year, according to its new landlord, taking more than 18 floors of a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper in a move that underlines its private equity-fuelled growth over the past decade.

Real estate group Fisher Brothers said on Thursday that it had agreed to lease 765,000 square-foot at 1345 Avenue of the Americas to Paul Weiss for 20 years, after investing $120mn in upgrading the building, with the help of JPMorgan.

“As we look ahead to a new year, this lease underscores an important global institution’s commitment to having an in-person footprint in New York City,” said Winston Fisher, partner at Fisher Brothers. “New York City continues to be an unparalleled place to do business”.

Asking rents in the building range between the high $80s per square foot on the lower floors to $135 near the top of the tower, according to Fisher Brothers.

Paul Weiss has about 1,000 lawyers, and its roots in the city trace back to the late 19th century. It is currently based a few blocks away from the refurbished property.

Recent upgrades include touchless elevators, 5,500 square feet of “flexible meeting space” and a wellness centre, according to Fisher Brothers, as well as New York City’s “largest indoor terrarium” and hybrid meeting spaces. 

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by TonyL

I am still of the opinion that Hudson Yards killed this tower.

Postponed, probably, killed? I hope not.

[HyperPower]

AMEX lease expires next door at 200 Vesey Street, the massive Battery Park City building at Brookfield Place, since that project was planned by Olympia & York in the 1980s as the World Financial Center. 1M sf would anchor the OG Foster 2WTC nicely.



https://therealdeal.com/new-york/202...ers-sale-move/

“Silverstein must be drooling,” an industry insider said of Larry Silverstein, who needs a large commitment from a tenant to get his 2 World Trade Center back on track. “It would be the best site for Amex because the employees are already used to the area.”

[worldtrade2021]

https://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-...-taxes-2023-12

The 25-year office construction boom that transformed New York City's skyline has hit the brakes, driven in part by record office vacancies

John L. Dorman Dec 30, 2023, 2:05 PM EST

New York City over the past 25 years has endured a multitude of unprecedented economic challenges, from the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, to the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, one thing has long remained a constant in Manhattan: the construction of large, skyline-defining office buildings.

But with many of the most ambitious office projects in New York City on hold for the foreseeable future, the city may not see a significant number of large office towers open their doors until the 2030s, according to The New York Times.

Per The Times, only a handful of large office buildings — which contain over 500,000 square feet — are set to open in 2024 and 2025. Beyond that timeframe, there are few projects on the horizon that would be completed by the end of the decade, according to the newspaper.

Driven by higher construction costs and heightened office vacancy rates, areas like Midtown Manhattan and Lower Manhattan, which have long been the nexus of operations for influential companies, are set to see a slowdown in the proliferation of large office buildings.

According to The Times, nearly 20 large office buildings proposed for construction have yet to see shovels in the ground to kick off the projects.

There's also the issue of signing anchor tenants to commit to occupying hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space.

One of the final centerpieces of the new World Trade Center complex — the long-planned 2 World Trade Center — has yet to commence construction as developer Silverstein Properties has so far been unable to find an anchor tenant for the building, per The Times.

For developers looking to sign a tenant to a large building, the market is simply not seeing large employers looking to move from their current spaces, according to the newspaper.

Remote work has also chipped away at the need for some companies to have the sorts of large physical footprints that were once commonplace in Manhattan prior to the pandemic.

"It's hard to justify putting a shovel in the ground when you have supply-demand fundamentals that are out of whack," CBRE US Debt and Structured Finance president James Millon told The Times.

So in Manhattan, which for over two decades had seen construction cranes rising everywhere amid an influx of residents to the borough, the slowdown in office construction will have a significant impact on the local economy.

According to CBRE — the real estate services and investment company — over 52 million square feet of office space has been constructed in Manhattan over the past 23 years. The figure is a reflection of the confidence in New York City as one of the leading economic centers in both the US and the world.

But at the end of the third quarter of 2023, 17.9% of office space in Manhattan remained on the market, a record high, according to a report issued by the real-estate brokerage firm Colliers.

Many neighborhoods throughout the city are still recovering from the pandemic. And the slowdown in office construction threatens the city's ability to fund a range of services for residents, as property taxes from office buildings typically bring in big bucks to the city's coffers each year.

The new JPMorgan Chase Building, where the final steel beam was raised last month, is one such building that the city is touting as it affirms its continued status as a global business powerhouse.

Located at 270 Park Avenue, just a few paces from Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, the 60-story building will serve as JPMorgan Chase's global headquarters and will be home to roughly 14,000 employees when it's set to open in 2025. The company in a statement said that 8,000 construction jobs — critical economic drivers for such developments — have been created as a result of the massive project.

And there's also the issue of office buildings being converted to residential housing, a major priority for housing advocates and lawmakers in a city starved for affordable housing. Manhattan has some of the widest income disparities of any jurisdiction in the country and many policymakers have rallied around housing conversions as a way to keep working-and-middle class New Yorkers in the city.

Hopefully there is more urgency to build this tower when 5 WTC is rising.

Still don't see how this is going to get built without allocating more space to hotel and retail/restaurant space.

[Xing Lin]

View of the current iteration down Fulton Street, similar to the official renderings of the first two designs:

Photograph by Ken Lund

[ajbeaver25]

Although the new Foster + Partners building looks decent I don't understand why Silverstein wants to ditch the original 2006 design.

It's literally in the 1 WTC elevator descent video and better fits the original plan by Daniel Libeskind. (Even though Silverstein thought the original WTC design competition was pointless)

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by ajbeaver25

Although the new Foster + Partners building looks decent I don't understand why Silverstein wants to ditch the original 2006 design.

Developers try to build what they think will attract tenants. Silverstein Properties has been and continues to sign office tenants, so they move in whatever direction they think the office market is. But no amount of redesign will make Downtown, Midtown.

[UrbanImpact]

Originally Posted by ajbeaver25

Although the new Foster + Partners building looks decent I don't understand why Silverstein wants to ditch the original 2006 design.

It's literally in the 1 WTC elevator descent video and better fits the original plan by Daniel Libeskind. (Even though Silverstein thought the original WTC design competition was pointless)

The original design, while beautiful, is outdated. Don't forget that Foster designed the building nearly 20 years ago. The amenities that tenants require today, especially post-pandemic like scattered outdoor space throughout a building, are unachievable with the previous design.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by UrbanImpact

The original design, while beautiful, is outdated. Don't forget that Foster designed the building nearly 20 years ago. The amenities that tenants require today, especially post-pandemic like scattered outdoor space throughout a building, are unachievable with the previous design.

That’s exactly right. When you look at the original and current Foster designs, tge biggest outward differences (other than the pointy top), are the terraces. I’m sure there are more interior amenities.

[rascacielomarciano]

OG photo by Jakob Halun

Here's a random alternate universe:

In the years following the attacks, architectural firms of all sizes clamored to design a replacement for the fallen World Trade Center towers, and control was eventually split between various real estate agencies with adequate funding provided to get the skyscrapers off the ground.

The first to go up was One World Trade Center, built at 150 Greenwich Street, encouraging an entire nation when ground broke in 2003 and whose striking diamonds continued to captivate worldwide visitors ever since the structure was topped out on the fifth anniversary of the attacks and opened a year later.

Following its completion, Silverstein Properties sought to build an identical twin north at 200 Greenwich, though plans for another luxurious diamond-shaped roof fell apart due to financing issues brought upon the agency by the Great Recession. In an effort to bring employees back, Silverstein made a gamble and constructed the new building, numbered Tower Four, on-spec, bringing a second supertall skyscraper into lower Manhattan for the first time in nearly a decade.

The early '10s passed, One and Four World Trade Center gained a notoriety as the "Fraternal Twin" Towers due to their identical foundation but differing upper halves. However, two sites at the complex remained undeveloped, with the recently-completed Performing Arts Center and Transportation Hub simply not being large enough to cover the entire areas.

Then came 2015, when Brookfield Properties successfully persuaded News Corp to finance a tower of their own at the site, constructing a block-shaped structure, unchronologically named Two World Trade Center, directly north of tower one, situated between it and the transit hub. This tower was completed and opened by 2019, and became known as the "big brother who stops the twins from quarreling."

Lastly, the site at 275 Fulton Street had remained dormant these years and speculation was that it would be converted into a park, or otherwise extension of the memorial. These rumors were only strengthened following the COVID-19 pandemic which dealt away with the necessity of in-person offices. However, following high unemployment rates and surging demand for work due to the overpopulation of the Hudson Yards Affordable Residential Complex, Brookfield sought to complete the WTC and construct tower Three. Ground broke in 2021 and the tower has climbed into the sky since then, with an opening expected next year. Social Media has dubbed it "Tree World Trade Center" due to its extensive greenery on the outside, which has been dubbed an attractive factor for office leasing.