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JUNE 26, 2023
REAL ESTATE
Here’s why Lower Manhattan offices are struggling
Downtown’s older buildings and relatively cheap rents in other neighborhoods haven’t helped, but opportunities remain BY EDDIE SMALL
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irtually no one would say Manhattan’s overall office market is doing well these days, but the downtown neighborhood is hurting even more than its counterparts in other areas of the borough.
Downtown has consistently fared worse than Midtown and Midtown South this year in terms of leasing activity, asking rents and available space. May was no exception: Downtown’s availability rate was the highest of the three neighborhoods at 20.8%, while its average asking rent and leasing activity
were the lowest, at $58.81 per square foot and 336,528 square feet, respectively, according to data from Colliers. “Downtown, historically since the end of World War II, really has been one of the more sensitive areas of the market,” said Colliers Executive Managing Director Frank
Wallach. “It’s usually the first to have an increase in direct and sublet availability, and it’s usually the one that takes longer for demand to catch back up to supply.” There are several factors at play behind the relative weakness of the market, ranging from the area’s older office buildings to opportunities
for good deals in other neighborhoods. But even as downtown struggles and becomes a prime target for the trendy idea of office-to-residential conversions, experts anticipate office buildings will continue to be a major component See STRUGGLES on page 22
GREEN & ACKERMAN BAKERY is a family-run business.
FINANCE
BUCK ENNIS
The banker who still makes house calls An old-school style of lending vital to small businesses faces rounds of upheaval as regional banks struggle
BY AARON ELSTEIN VOL. 39, NO. 25
A
t a time of great uncertainty, it’s comforting to know the babka business is thriving. “It’s true not only for chocolate babkas but also cinnamon,” said Martin Werzberger, chief financial officer at Williamsburg’s Green & Ackerman Bakery, a family-run business whose babkas New York magazine called “more or less perfect”; they are sold at Whole Foods and other retailers.
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“The fact that people can go broke from getting sick is just insane to me” PAGE 6 P001_CN_20230626.indd 1
The uber-tasty desserts are the legacy of Chana Green, an immigrant from Hungary a century ago whose heirs built a business with revenue exceeding $10 million. Today 60 employees churn out 5,000 babkas, rugelach, layer cakes and other pastries daily from a compact 12,500-square-foot factory. The company recently got a See BANKER on page 19
GOTHAM GIG
His nonprofit charter schools serve at-risk kids PAGE 23
6/23/23 4:44 PM