Manhattan investment sales market’s too expensive: Durst

Douglas Durst, chairman of the Durst Organization, said he has no current plans to acquire any more buildings in Manhattan because prices are not corresponding with value. “During the recent recession… prices just never came down to a level that we were comfortable with,” Durst said in an interview in the Wall Street Journal. “And now they’re rising again.” As for his recent investment in 1 World Trade Center, Durst said his firm was wanted on the project to manage the building once completed because the project’s developer, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, has a poor reputation with office towers. He said in addition to the 1.2 million square feet being leased by Conde Nast and the China Center, the government agency General Services Administration is in talks to lease 600,000 square feet. That would leave 1.2 million vacant square feet in the 3 million-square-foot, 104-story tower. Still, Durst doesn’t think there’s too much competition from other Financial District office space belonging to developer Larry Silverstein — who is co-developing 1 World Trade with the Port Authority — because of the contrasting move-in dates for the buildings and the distinct height of the available space in 1 World Trade Center. [WSJ]