Manhattan added about 20 million sq ft of new office space from 2001 to 2010 but is not expected to add any significantly sized office towers this year, according to a new New York Building Congress report. The exception is a 33,700-sq-ft tower at 2 Allen Street that is expected to be completed late this year. Growth may be ahead, however, with several planned major projects set for mid-decade completion, the trade group says.
Despite the forecast, there is still reason for cautious optimism, says Louis Coletti, president and CEO of the Building Trades Employers' Association. "When you look at these [and other] specific projects, there are still so many factors that are uncertain [such as] tenants, financing, and construction costs, so I'm not as optimistic as the report is," Coletti says. "The second issue for the BTEA is that, even if the projects go forward, there's no guarantee that they will be built with union contractors in all trades."