Brookfield Place defies pandemic pains and thrives downtown with new lease deals
Brookfield Place survived 9/11 (which buried the complex in ash) and the Great Recession (which drained some large office tenants). Superstorm Sandy hardly laid a glove on it.
Now, the 14-acre commercial complex that was originally called the World Financial Center is weathering the worst calamity of all, the pandemic, with remarkable grace even as much of downtown’s commercial scene struggles.
The complex’s four 1989s-vintage office towers and a more recent addition are all but full. Its gleaming shopping and dining portion is thriving with new leases and dramatically increased foot traffic.
Three new long-term office deals at 225 Liberty St. — formerly Two World Financial Center — brought its 1.739 million square feet to 97 percent leased. The commitments total over 67,000 square feet for Simon-Kucher & Partners, a global strategy and marketing consulting firm; DRW Holdings LLC, a trading firm; and an unidentified investment management firm.
Neighboring 250 Vesey St. and 300 Vesey St. (a smaller 1996 tower originally built for the New York Mercantile Exchange) are 100 percent leased, while 200 Liberty St. and 200 Vesey are both 90 percent leased.
Meanwhile, the 360,000 square-feet shopping and dining mall, centered around the glass-wrapped, palm trees-filled Winter Garden, is 94 percent leased. Its success stands in stark comparison to Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s limping World Trade Center Oculus-centered mall to the east which is linked to Brookfield Place underground.
Although URW doesn’t divulge vacancy levels, huge portions of the WTC mall stand vacant, such as the retail base of Three World Trade Center. (However, the office towers owned by the Durst Organization and the Port Authority and by Larry Silverstein are doing very well. Like Brookfield Place, they’re a rare downtown bright spot amidst a sea of under-leased older buildings.)
Brookfield’s retail complex has drawn 17,000 square feet of new stores and eateries since early 2021 — among them, Adam Grooming Atelier, Plaza M Spa and The Wonder. Several new “chef-driven” spots have opened as well at Hudson Eats, Brookfield’s fast-casual food hall.
Foot traffic in the mall is up 53 percent since 2021 and 200 percent from the doldrums of 2020, according to Brookfield. Lululemon just signed a new lease to double the size of its store to 5,000 square feet.
Brookfield this month launched a pop-up called Portside that offers snacks, drinks and free public events on the plaza overlooking the harbor.
The complex looked to be in trouble after the 2008 recession when some large office tenants including Merrill Lynch left or downsized and the entire area was regarded as a shopping backwater. Its World Financial Center name sounded as stodgy as its overall image.
But its smart rebranding as Brookfield Place, and $250 million the developer spent to redesign the public areas in 2014 and 2015, plus later redesigns of office tower lobbies and systems upgrades, helped to lure scores of new tenants. Among them: Time Inc., Jones Day and Northwestern Mutual.
The developer declined to share current rents. We reported the asking rent at 200 Liberty was in the mid-$70s per square foot back in ancient 2019.