October 30, 2008

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Owning a New York office building used to signal a landlord had arrived at the top of the heap. But a crippled financial industry has tarnished the prize, judging by financial results and forecasts of two large real estate companies.” If you define our four markets as Boston, Washington, D.C., New York City and San Francisco, I would say the strongest market is Boston, followed by Washington, followed by San Francisco, followed by New York," Doug Linde, Boston Properties BXP.N president told analysts during a conference call on Wednesday.
Fueled by rich rents from investment banks, insurance companies, hedge funds and private equity firms, New York easily topped that list over the past four years. Some of those financial tenants no longer exist and others are merging or cutting their staff.Canadian-based Brookfield Properties (BPO.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which owns 10 million square feet of office space in downtown Manhattan, acknowledged the negative impact the financial industry will have on that market.