Nevertheless, industrial conversions tend to rent briskly because rents are more competitive than those of the first-class buildings, said Jack Britvan, president of American Corporate Realty in Woodbury.
Anthony Malkin, president of W&M Properties in Manhattan, which owns Merritt View, a 250,000-square-foot Class A office building farther south on Route 7, said: "The market strongly favors first-class buildings from White Plains to Norwalk.
Nonetheless, the governor continues to say that he is open to any plan that expands the Javits Center, which is widely derided as an out-of-date, second-class building unworthy of its city.
Affordable housing advocates have accused luxury condominium developers on Williamsburg's north side of segregating affordable units in second-class buildings.
But L & L Holding bought the 850,000-square-foot building for $480 million in May with a plan to turn it into a first-class office building.
He announced that he would spend an additional $170 million to transform the landmark into a first-class office building.
The buyer spent $100 million on gutting and renovating the property in an effort to transform it into a first-class office building.
EVEN though the Melville Technology Center will receive the interior finishes and have the appearance of a first-class office building, because it is a renovation and not in a highly-visible location annual rents of $23 a square foot "are well below the market for an A building, and this is an A building".
Landlords at prime office buildings were getting more than $100 a square foot annually, while the average rents for first-class Midtown buildings rose to $73.31 by the first quarter of 2007 from $55.21 in the first quarter of 2005, according to Reis Inc., a New York office research company.
While some investors will probably be drawn to the romantic notion of owning a piece of the fabled skyscraper, some analysts note that the building and several of the other properties included in the REIT are not viewed as modern, first-class office buildings.
