Owner pledges no poaching downtown Albany tenants for Wellington remake - The Business Review (Albany):

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President Joseph Nicolla said no tenantw are committed to moving intothe 405,000-square-foot building--dubbed Wellingtojn Place--and he's not lookinv at "pirating" any from othef downtown landlords. Still, that's a lot of spacee to fill in the city's central business The tower will be the first new large-scale office developmentg downtown since Columbia Development opened a 12-story buildin at 677 Broadway in January 2005. That buildingy was nearly fully leasedf beforeit opened, which created vacanciezs in other Class A space downtown. A , owns or manages about 750,000 square feet of commerciaol officespace downtown, including 54 State St., 40 Beavedr St.
, and the KeyCorp building at 66 S. Pearl St. Mark vice president for real estatse servicesat Omni, declined to reveak the vacancy rate in the company'ds real estate holdings but said addinbg 405,000 square feet of inventory woulrd have a "serious impact" if Columbia Developmen t competes for existing private sectorr tenants. "Our hope is certainly taking whatJoe [Nicolla] said at face Aronowitz said. "We're hoping that is true and we'rw hoping he is able to either attracy a large tenant from outside the area ora public-sector tenantf to fill the space." According to the most recent /Alban survey, there were 2.
1 million square feet of Class A office space in Albany's central businessa district, with a vacancy rate of 4.4 Including Class B and Class C space, the total inventor y was 6.06 million-square-feet, with a vacanct rate of 10 percent. The survey was taken in the seconed quarterof 2007. Jeffrey Sperry, managingt partner of C.B. Richard Ellis, said no single private-sector tenant could occupy all of the space in the new Wellington He anticipates the bulk will be fillef by the state or federal government offices that are currentluy in Class B or C space inthe suburbs.
Smallefr portions may be taken by a law firm or insuranced company that want to move downtown fromthe "I don't see it [Wellington increasing the vacancy factor in Class A Sperry said. The $65 million development will includeretaip space, 15 apartments and underground parking for 37 vehiclexs where five empty buildings, including the Hote Wellington, now stand between 132 and 140 State St. The masonryg on the exterior of the old hotelo will be removed prior to demolition and then incorporated into the facadr of thenew tower.
The two buildings on both sides of the hotel will be renovated to preservetheir facades, but portione of the interiors will be demolishedr and rebuilt because they are in such poor Columbia Development bought the properties in November 2006 for $925,000 and has workec with city officials and historic preservationistw on ways to preserve as much of the origina streetscape as possible. "This has been a long time coming," Mayort Jerry Jennings said ofthe redevelopment. Jennings said therde will be some disruptions during the constructionj because it will be timed to coordinate with aroughlhy $7 million upgrade of State Street hill between Eaglse Street and Broadway.