"New York has always been one of the most resilient markets in the country," said David Welsh, who teamed with New Jersey investor Scott Landis in April to buy their first New York office property, three blocks south of Central Park, for US$148 million.
Sept. 11 showed the importance of not concentrating operations in one place. That prompted companies to move some operations outside the city, reducing tax revenue for New York, which faces a US$6 billion budget deficit through 2005.
In January, Goldman Sachs Group Inc told employees it would move equity trading and research to a tower it is building in Jersey City, New Jersey, that had been designated mainly for back-office operations.
Insurance broker Marsh & McLennan Cos, the third-largest tenant in the Trade Center, is moving 1,100 employees to Hoboken, New Jersey. In addition to its midtown property, Lehman assumed a 40,900m2 lease in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Morgan Stanley, which sold Lehman the Times Square building for a Manhattan record of US$650 per square foot, bought the former world headquarters of Texaco Inc. in Harrison, New York, 43km north of the city, for 1,475 workers in its brokerage, investment banking and trading arms.
Downtown has retained some tenants.
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