BY STEPHEN KLEEGE

Lord Norman Foster this month won the contest to design the first new office tower in almost 50 years on Park Avenue, beating three other finalists for the opportunity to make a mark on the row of 30 Class A buildings in the submarket, which already boasts two of the city’s most famous modernist classics.

L&L Holding Co. late last month chose Foster + Partners’ design for an illuminated 41-story tower at 425 Park Avenue, a few blocks north of the Seagram Building and Lever House, 1950s buildings that helped establish the International Style of glass and steel construction. Foster’s tapered steel-frame tower allows for three gradated tiers of column-free floors, separated by tree-lined terraces where employees will take breaks and exchange ideas, as well as a ground-level public plaza.

The opportunity stemmed from the expiration of the ground lease at the property, which allows L&L to empty the existing building as of May 2015 and replace it. “It was a fluke,” said David Levinson, L&L Holding’s chairman and chief executive officer.

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BY MICHAEL EWING

Penn Plaza, the area surrounding Penn Station, has historically been a hub for firms that rely on transportation, namely the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit. Recent development, however, has taken the district in a new direction.

“We are seeing a wave of social media, advertising, marketing and high fashion tenants taking advantage of the still favorable value differential in the Penn Station submarket,” said Kevin Hoo, the vice president of Savanna. “Google’s presence at 111 Eighth Avenue and the tightening in that market has also begun to drive creative tenants northward into this submarket.

“We think that the transformation of Manhattan’s West Side has already begun and that these new tenants continue to provide increasing momentum in that direction,” Mr. Hoo added.

“The area has gradually been repositioning for higher uses,” said John Picco, an executive director at Cushman & Wakefield. “Major owners like Vornado and Malkin Properties have upgraded their buildings or have plans in place to renovate on a major scale.” Asking rents, he said, range from “mid-$40s per square foot [in] class B and C buildings to $60 per square foot for top of the market, like 1 Penn Plaza.”

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BY MICHAEL Ewing Built by the Rockefeller family in the 1930s, Rockefeller Center is one of the largest commercial real estate developments to be built in the past century. Initially spanning approximately two dozen buildings, 22 acres and over 8,000,000 square feet, the district has further expanded in recent years to include a few dozen additional buildings along the Sixth Avenue corridor.

“There has also been a significant slowdown of leasing along the Sixth Avenue corridor, particularly Class A leasing, where leasing in the first half of 2012 was about half the long-term average,” said Melissa Bazar, an executive director at Cushman & Wakefield. “Since the Sixth Avenue corridor is dominated by large corporate users and financial firms, we expect leasing to remain sluggish through the balance of 2012, below the long-term average.”

Inventory has increased from 9.3 percent to 10.5 percent this past year, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s third-quarter report.

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BY MICHAEL EWING

It’s been commonly known as the Garment District, but with the recent surge of tech industries moving into the area, some are calling Times Square South by a new name: Chelsea North. Confused?

“The market has changed dramatically,” said Diana Gaines, a senior director at Cushman & Wakefield, of Times Square South. “The area called Times Square South has traditionally been known as the Garment Center. In the last few years, this has become less and less the norm.

The economic downturn forced many companies who were located in traditionally more expensive submarkets to consider alternative locations, allowing landlords to diversify their buildings.

“Fewer and fewer buildings, especially ‘Avenue Buildings,’ are considered ‘apparel buildings,’” she added. “The submarket benefited by this, offering a lower-cost solution in an area with superb transportation. This submarket has become a truly well-rounded office market.”

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BY MICHAEL EWING

The West Side of Midtown has increased its presence in the commercial real estate market within the past 20 years. The market now boasts a vacancy rate below 10 percent across all assets.

“To understand this market, it’s important to view it in the context of the history of the last 25 years,” explained Mitch Arkin, an executive director at Cushman & Wakefield. “In the ’80s, the market started pushing west with the development of Carnegie Hall Tower, the Equitable Building, 787 Seventh Avenue, followed by 1585 Broadway, 1540 Broadway, 750 Seventh Avenue, Worldwide Plaza, 1745 Broadway [and] Metropolitan Tower. Those buildings all brought Eighth Avenue and Broadway north of Times Square into Midtown.” West Side Boundaries.

“In the early 2000s, residential development began to proliferate, particularly along 10th Avenue and Eighth Avenue, including some side-street development,” he added. “Today the entire area is booming, flanked in the south by the Hudson Yards and Brookfield Properties’ development along Ninth Avenue and to the north with the Durst Organization’s new residential project to the west of the Helena and Extell Development’s tower on 57th Street.”

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