Water Street the New Wall Street

By, Jordan Crehan

Water Street, located on the east side of the financial district is regarded as a desolate and unattractive area to start a new office space, but that is about to change.

Members of the group Alliance for Downtown New York are striving to redevelop this half-mile stretch into a “commercial boulevard”. Their initial plan is centered around constructing a plant median, narrowing the street and redesigning public plazas in order to create a more sleek and modern image.  To most, Water Street can be described as an untouched area of lower Manhattan that has a lot of potential.  While to others, Water Street is more reminiscent of a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, with blanks walls and empty ground floors. 

The current water street look is indicative of a 1970’s and 1980’s retro prototype of a commercial boulevard.  These designs contain many flaws as the street is so wide is draws traffic away from the narrow lanes and alleys.  Elizabeth H. Berger, President of the Alliance for Downtown, hopes that by changing the landscape it will attract more companies to acquire office space.

The consensus among most realty owners is that the activity in lower Manhattan has “moved westward over the years” to areas like Battery park and World trade Center area.   As stated by Steve Spinola, President of the Real Estate group of New York, “there needs to be recognition that Water Street should be one of the great office streets in the city”.  In light of the current stagnation in the economy, it might be easier and more affordable to reconstruct this area of lower Manhattan than ever before.  If new office spaces are built, owners will undoubtedly take advantage of the current commercials market situation; lower rents and higher concessions. 

Now that boutique real estate groups like Prime Manhattan Realty are drawing more clients to this area, it has created quite the stir among the real estate community. As firms take an interest in this area it only adds to potential for commercial office space growth.  In terms of the timeline for this project, it could take years.  As the city appears to be undecided upon how they will allocate the costs to start this endeavor, some believe it should be broken up into different pieces while others feel it should be a full-blown reconstruction.   One thing is clear though, in order to complete this plan it would require financing from the state level and federal level.    

If Water Street is rebuilt, it will not only redefine the lower Manhattan commercial market but usher in new businesses that want to invest in commercial office space.