Why NY Office Hasn't Imploded

If the two biggest office demand drivers in any other market had been contracting for five years, "you'd hear a giant sucking sound and then investors would stop," Cassidy Turley tri-state prez Peter Hennessy says. But not in New York.

Financial services and government occupy 15% (and shrinking) of the city's office space, Peter tells us. Leasing has dropped from 40M SF in '11 to 32M in '12, and the market would need 14M SF of activity to reach 2012 levels. And yet sales prices are skyrocketing. At least part of the reason, he says, is a more multidisciplinary market. That means not just bubbling media, tech, and fashion growth (and the city has barely scratched the surface of biotech, he says). There's also mixing of uses. Consider Downtown, he says, which once was a ghost town after dark and where office, retail, and residential all now are thriving.

Peter got his start under tenant rep legend Roger Staubach, so he bought this collector's-item Wheaties box from Roger's days with the Cowboys, reissued six years ago. Crain's named Cassidy Turley one of this year's New York Top 50 Best Places to Work (Bisnow also made the list, if you'll allow us some horn tooting). Among Cassidy Turley's attributes are the open work space behind Peter, whom we snapped at top, and a culture that allows Patrick Leiser to photo bomb his own boss. Then there are the group activities. Peter expects a 75% turnout for the office's upcoming paintball trip, where he tells us, his first target will be Bryan Boisi.