China Centre amends World Trade Centre lease from four floors to one
Club's move feared by some as an indication of a slowdown in overseas investment from China
Authorities have agreed to slash space leased at New York's One World Trade Centre by a club dedicated to helping Chinese businesses expand their US presence, an accord some feared may portend a slowdown in overseas investment from China.
The board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Thursday approved a request by China Centre New York to amend a lease it signed in 2009 for more than four floors of space to just the 89th floor of the 104-storey building, the tallest in the western hemisphere at 541 metres including its spire.
The new 20-year lease by China Centre, a unit of China's Vantone Holdings, for about US$72.8 million in anticipated aggregate rent is for about 35,000 square feet, a sharp drop from an initially planned 190,810 sq ft, according to the Port Authority, the building's majority owner.
The China Centre bills itself as a club where China's elite can connect with global peers. The Durst Organisation, which has a US$100 million investment in the building it manages and oversees leasing, has called China Centre a major tenant along with publisher Conde Nast and several US federal agencies.
A Durst spokesman said China Centre's business model had changed and it was unable to fulfil its original commitment.
China will continue its robust US investment activity, said Brian Ward, president of Capital Markets and Investment Services in the Americas for Colliers International, a global real estate company.