HIGH-FLYING JetBlue Airways, the only U.S. airline based in New York, just tripled the size of its headquarters.
Under a newly signed sublease from RCN Telecommunications, the upstart airline has taken 112,000 square feet at 118-29 Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills – possibly the largest office lease in Queens this year.
JetBlue was previously at 80-02 Kew Gardens Rd., across the street.
Last summer, The Post reported the airline was in talks to take about 74,000 square feet at 118-29 Queens Blvd., also known as Forest Hills Tower – but since then, JetBlue decided it wanted even more leg room.
In a series of moves in which Cushman & Wakefield represented both sides, the airline gradually upped its commitment. A recent option for 18,000 square feet on the sixth floor capped the deal, which is packaged into a single lease.
“It’s amazing that we’re the only domestic carrier based here,” said JetBlue spokesman Gareth Jones. “The city used to be home to American, TWA and others, and they all left.” Jones said JetBlue has between 600 and 800 employees on Queens Boulevard.
“JetBlue wanted to consolidate to efficient and contiguous floor plates,” said C&W executive director A. Mitti Liebersohn, who repped the airline along with C&W director Alex Chudnoff and associate Rob Sena.
JetBlue’s new space on floors 2 through 6 and 8 is “a building within a building,” with its own elevator bank, said Chudnoff. The Muss-owned property is one of Queens’ few class-A buildings, and where developer Joshua Muss keeps his own offices.
Liebersohn said the rent was in the “low to mid-$20s” per square foot.
C&W’s Lou D’Avanzo, who repped RCN, said the telecom firm was “doing well,” but consolidating its space after a period of expansion.
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Good news for Nirvana: The shuttered Central Park South restaurant, whose plight was reported here a few weeks ago, is getting its keys back.
The Buildings Department just rescinded most of the vacate order in effect since an exterior construction accident punched a hole in the kitchen wall last summer.
Owner Shamshur Wadud will be able to re-enter most of the restaurant, though not the kitchen area, for which the vacate order remains in effect. Wadud hopes to reopen by Valentine’s Day.
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There are two ways to view downtown: in terms of its obvious weakness, or in terms of its less obvious stability.
Preferring to take the latter view is Scott Singer, executive vice-president of mortgage brokers Singer & Bassuk, which has arranged more than $500 million in financing for downtown since 9/11.
“There was a fear for a significant period after 9/11 that lenders would redline downtown,” Singer said. “Clearly, we’ve shown that isn’t the case.”
Prior to the terrorist attack, Singer & Bassuk had arranged financing for about 65 percent of Lower Manhattan’s residential conversions.
Since then, among other transactions, it has arranged a $190 refinancing of 1 Seaport Plaza and a $58 million first mortgage on 52 Broadway, new home of the United Federation of Teachers.
“At the end of 2001,” Singer said, “you had the worst possible thing: uncertainty. No one knew if anyone would sign leases again.
“Now it’s clear that things have stabilized. We lost a lot of tenants and [have] given a lot of space back. But it’s all at a measurable level and people are not fleeing the neighborhood.”
While everyone waits for a “breakthrough” commitment by a company like CIBC or KPMG, major lease renewals – such as re-ups by AIG and Cahill, Gordon & Reindel for 800,000 square feet at 80 Pine St. – laugh off predictions of future flight.
Meanwhile, the latest data from Insignia/ESG shows slight improvement in the downtown availability rate, which nudged down from 14.6 percent to 14.5 percent in October. The next survey ought to show more improvement, as it will take into account two big, recent new commitments – Thacher Proffitt & Wood’s 126,000 square-foot sublease at 2 World Financial Center, and the Health & Hospitals Corp.’s lease for 140,000 square feet at 160 Water St.
Of 11.9 million square feet Insignia found “available,” out of a total inventory of 82.4 million square feet, sublease space accounts for 4.31 million.
That means the downtown vacancy rate – space on which no rent is being paid – is barely more than 9 percent.