[NYguy]

https://seekingalpha.com/article/425...all-transcript

Vornado Realty Trust (VNO) CEO Steven Roth on Q1 2019 Results - Earnings Call


Apr. 30, 2019

Michael Franco

Let me turn now to the New York market. The New York City economy continues to be strong with sustained job growth driving strong tenant demand for office space. In the first quarter, the city added 12000 office using jobs or two-thirds of what was created all of last year and it pace well ahead -- well above I should say what's needed to absorb the new supply coming online. As a result, tenant demand remains very strong in all submarkets with more than eight million square feet of lease transactions completed during the first quarter.

......More than ever, companies are focused on new office space as a means of employee recruitment and retention. We are continuing to benefit from this theme in redeveloped midtown portfolio and this bodes very well for what we are doing at Farley and plan to do in the PENN district overall.

.....Construction of the Moynihan Train Hall in the Farley Building continues full speed ahead. Interest from both office and retail tenants is picking up despite the heavy construction nature of the site as they begin to appreciate the uniqueness of this asset.

At PENN1, the sidewalk bridges are now up as we have started the facade portion of our transformation.

.....I want to emphasize a point that Steve made in his annual letter. The net proceeds from 220 will fund the PENN distributed element plan for Farley, PENN1 and PENN2 with little or no new debt. Once completed the lease stop, these developments will be highly accretive to future earnings and value.

And earlier this month, we received the unanimous approval from the New York City Landmarks Commission for a redevelopment of 260 11th Avenue designed by the world-renowned architect Lord Richard Rogers. It is directly across the street from Starrett-Lehigh and a couple of blocks south of Hudson Yards. This approximately 350,000 square foot building will uniquely combine historic and new buildings and feature the best of Roger's signature design elements creating exactly what creative class tenants you are looking for today.