Future demand will support WTC office space, IBO finds.

Manhattan borough president Scott M. Stringer announced the results of a study he commissioned from the city's Independent Budget Office, which analyzed the need for office space in lower Manhattan as it relates to the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site.

The IBO reported its analysis to the borough president in a six-page letter. The key findings of the work include:

The future of lower Manhattan as a location for new office development is strong;

It is likely that there will be sufficient demand to meet the planned supply of office space citywide over the next 30 years;

Current asking rents downtown in modern class A buildings are about $34.00 per s/f. considerably below the estimates Silverstein Properties ($50 per s/f) and the Economic Development Corporation ($45 per s/f) used in their financial analyses of the trade center project.

One of the key elements of the current dispute over whether Silverstein Properties has the financial sufficiency to complete the WTC rebuilding is that the City's Economic Development Corporation and Silverstein Properties paint two different pictures of the future downtown real estate market and the office rents Silverstein is likely to be able to command at the WTC site.

In February, borough president Stringer called on the IBO to shed some objective light on this dispute by reviewing the total amount of new office development likely to be needed in the city in the coming decades and using these results to comment on WTC rebuilding analyses by EDC and by Silverstein Properties.

In announcing the release of the study, Stringer said, "I thank the IBO for their expeditious action on this critical issue and hope their analysis will contribute to the public debate and lead to a speedy resolution of the disagreement over plans for the site. It is imperative that all parties involved resolve their differences, move forward and start building."