Jones Lang LaSalle


SPECIAL REPORT: Office or Residential? Execs Argue Diverse Downtown Priorities
February 09, 2006

A panel discussion on Downtown Manhattan's prospects as a residential community turned into a debate of sorts yesterday for top New York real estate executives to advocate different priorities for revitalizing the area.

"The more that gets developed residentially, the better Downtown is going to be," Newmark Knight Frank CEO Barry Gosin told some 250 real estate professionals, parents and others in attendance. Noting that Downtown has lost 19 million square feet of office space in the last decade to residential conversion and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Gosin said, "You can still be the financial capital of the world at 85 million square feet or 90 million square feet…the sooner that downtown develops that critical mass of residents to make it a truly 24-7 environment, the better off everything will be for downtown."

Acting as a self-proclaimed devil's advocate, Kent Swig (pictured), co-chairman of
Terra Holdings and president of Swig Equities, offered a scenario including the full build-out of the World Trade Center site for commercial uses. "What we need," he said, "are newer office buildings to attract quality tenants."

After the discussion, Swig told CPN that key improvements to Downtown are being underestimated. For example, a massive, nearly complete effort to upgrade water, gas, telecommunications and other infrastructure is flying under the radar. "The reality is, you have a brand new city underground…and nobody has a clue about it," he said.

Gosin and Swig made their comments at a lunchtime panel discussion at Claremont Preparatory School, the first private school opened Downtown in 50 years. The setting was meant to underscore efforts to promote Downtown as a family-friendly residential neighborhood. Unused from 1988 to 2003, the 76-year-old building at 41 Broad St. was most recently occupied by Bank of America International.