As Brookfield Place prepares to open the doors of Le District on March 26, the NY Post lauds its other monumental achievement. Just a year and a half ago Brookfield Property Partners faced the daunting task of filling a staggering 41% vacancy at the World Financial Center's 8.5M SF office towers after Merrill Lynch exited, along with Bank of America subtenants Nomura and Deloitte. Today they’ve managed to bring that vacancy down to just below 5%, with only 300k SF to fill as opposed to 3.1M SF. New tenants like Bank of New York Mellon, Time Inc and Hudson’s Bay Co. were drawn to the 1980s Cesar Pelli-designed skyscraper’s relative newness compared with other towers in the area, and cheaper rent, in addition to Brookfield’s $250M redesign and rebranding as Brookfield Place. The redesign includes new lobbies, 35k SF Hudson Eats, Le District, new outdoor plazas, and space for high-end shops like Hermes, Dian von Furstenberg and Ferragamo. [NYP]