Lower Manhattan office space ‘tours’ on the rise despite Downtown’s struggling properties

The Downtown office market is in even worse shape than widely reported data indicate, according to several major dealmakers.

One of them, an industry legend not given to doom-and-gloom scenarios, told us that huge amounts of space are quietly up for sublease even at the World Trade Center and Brookfield Place – Lower Manhattan’s best-performing properties.

Most brokerage firms cite FiDi-area “availability” – including space currently vacant or soon to be — at between 20% and 23%, compared with around 16% uptown. But so-called “shadow space” cited by the market insider could raise the total much higher.

Not every building is in trouble. The district’s grim overall data are skewed by two particular enormous properties – Paramount Group’s “transitioning” 60 Wall Street, where most of 1.6 million square feet are yet to be leased, and 111 Wall Street, an entirely empty 1 million square-foot address that’s now in foreclosure.

But other struggling buildings are also on the downbound train, such as 40 Wall Street. The landmark tower is about 30% empty and its plight will likely worsen as the Trump Organization skyscraper is at risk of seizure by state attorney general Letitia James.

Even more vulnerable are Downtown’s large number of pre-war, Class B-minus buildings that few tenants want at any rent and which can’t easily convert to residential use.