A quart of sour pickles on Grand Street costs just $8. But a single square foot of newly minted, amenities-rich office space on Delancey Street will set you back a C-note. Hello, the new Lower East Side.
The 350,000 square feet of offices at fast-track development complex Essex Crossing come in the form of two, 175,000-square-foot contiguous chunks at 145 and 155 Delancey St. — mixed-use towers of 14 and 26 stories respectively that are also known as 202 Broome and 180 Broome St. on their apartment-entrance sides.
The office availabilities, on the second through fifth floors at each address, are coming to market via Cushman & Wakefield just as 1.9-million-square-foot Essex Crossing hits the fast lane. Seven of nine planned buildings on six acres are open or rising. The full complex is to be finished in 2024.
Although project officials first told us they expected $100 a square foot, the “official” ask is $99 a square foot, said Josh Kuriloff, leader of a Cushman & Wakefield leasing team that includes Matthias Li, Andrew Braver and Joseph Cirone. (Historic Lower East Side pricing would surely be $99.99).
Although it might sound astronomical on a block previously known for discount baby clothes and empty lots, it’s 30 percent less than office rents in the Meatpacking District, Kuriloff said.
Essex Crossing’s apartments and retail spaces have been snatched up rapidly.
Now, joint-venture developer Delancey Street Associates is banking on office tenants to pay never-before-seen rents in the neighborhood — where it’s hard to find offices at any price.
DSA was designated by the city to develop the long-vacant lots south of Delancey Street between Ludlow Street and the Williamsburg Bridge in 2013.
The group consists of Taconic Investment Partners, BFC Partners, L+M Development Partners, Prusik Group and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group.
Taconic SVP Matthew Weir said the location “leverages the popularity of the Lower East Side as well as direct access to the large talent pools of downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. Add the unique combination of large, institutional floor plates within a boutique setting, and we think the offices at Essex Crossing will be very appealing to the best of today’s large corporate tenants.”
Office floors at each tower range from 35,000 to 52,000 square feet. The larger size is all but unknown in thriving Midtown South, a poorly named market of 69 million square feet that stretches river to river from as far north as 32nd Street to Canal Street.
“There are only two other buildings in all of Midtown South that can deliver 150,000 square feet of contiguous floors and with 52,000-square-foot floor plates — and neither is new construction,” Kuriloff said.
The Essex floors boast floor-to-ceiling windows, ceilings of 12 to 13 feet and 24/7 tenant-controlled air-conditioning.
The floors come as part of a “live, work and play” package that designers set out to create for the complex’s residents and workers. Kuriloff said,
“The biggest challenge for companies today is to recruit and retain talent. The old adage of location, location, location is now about amenities, amenities, amenities. It’s all about the employee experience. ”
The developers hope to lure firms with young, tech-oriented staffers who’ll come to work by four subway lines at the Delancey-Essex Street station and on foot or bike over the Williamsburg Bridge.
Tenants will also enjoy direct indoor entry to both the new Essex Market, which opened Monday with 21 “legacy” food vendors from the original site nearby and 18 new ones — and to the Market Line, a colossal, three-block-long underground food and fashion market to debut in late summer. They’ll also have access to Broome Street Gardens, a 9,000-square-foot elevated atrium in each of the two buildings.
Outside are Trader Joe’s and a 14-screen Regal Essex cinemas. Both a relocated International Center of Photography and bowling venue The Gutter are expected to open this year.
Kuriloff said the developers are open to having more than one tenant at either 145 or 155 Delancey St., but the locations ideally lend themselves to single-tenant use — at each building or at both.
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