MAKING MANHATTAN SHOVEL READY

March 12, 2012 | 8:00 am ET Staff Reporter

Public investment in corporate incentives isn't about the real estate —it's about the job creation, says NYC Economic Development Corp prez Seth Pinsky, but the building stock does play a role. (In fact, it's in the running for Best Supporting Actor.)

At lunch with REBNY at the Hilton New York, we snapped Seth and Empire State Development Corp CEO Ken Adams, who justifies the incentives for Fresh Direct to relocate within the city (LIC to the South Bronx) by job growth: The Excelsior Jobs Program tax credit kicks in only if and when the 2,000 to 3,000 jobs the grocer promised are created. More than individual deals, though, Seth wants to create conditions so corporations want to move here and sprout jobs organically. Among those is the quality of the office stock.

Port Authority of NY and NJ exec director Pat Foye says rezoning for higher density (Hudson Yards and the East Side, for instance), even while existing stock (think WTC) sits vacant, is needed to update the city's office inventory. How did our wardrobe get so out of date? Seth says we've missed the development window for the past few cycles: By the time rents rose to justify new projects and ideas got ready to break ground, the cycle was over. Bloomberg, Seth says, wants to position the city so developers can stick those shovels in the ground as soon as rents allow it.

Adam Frazier (with colleagues Sara Fay, Tom Hill, Matthew Mayer,Robert Schubert, and Dan Birney) won REBNY's Most Promising Commercial Salesperson of the Year Award for his four-tenant relocation project at 2 Grand Central Tower, totaling 50k SF.