Despite empty office buildings, officials say Yonkers draws interest

Ernie Garcia
elgarcia@lohud.com

YONKERS — A tough economy and poor maintenance have created lots of empty space for downtown’s commercial landlords.

Three midrise office buildings within walking distance of Getty Square — 86 Main St., 45 S. Broadway and 70 Ashburton Ave. — are closed or virtually empty, and vacant storefronts sit along Main Street heading to the waterfront.

Despite these dead zones, city officials say there is still interest in the city’s core.
“We’re constantly called every day by potential merchants,” said Sharon Ebert, deputy commissioner of Yonkers Office of Planning and Development.

Ebert said a national pharmacy is looking for space downtown and that the i.park N-Valley complex at 470 Nepperhan Ave. has a potential client for its existing vacant space.

“To say there is a lot of vacant office space, yes, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t deals or transactions in the works,” said Ebert, adding that two empty storefronts on Main Street have been recently leased.

City officials said that two of the empty downtown office buildings, 45 S. Broadway and 70 Ashburton Ave., should not be considered unwanted office space because they were closed by the city due to structural problems.

Still, some landlords are reluctant to cut rents.

Paul Adler, senior executive managing director at Prudential Rand Commercial Services, said he’s had trouble making deals with landlords for a federal agency looking for 7,500 square feet of office space in Yonkers.

One landlord “was asking for a price per square foot for his empty building (as if it were) the height of the market in 2006,” said Adler, who declined to name the office building involved.

Kevin Cacace, executive director of the Yonkers Chamber of Commerce, said landlords’ rent expectations may have been unreasonable in 2006, but he does not think that is true today.

“I’d be surprised if you couldn’t negotiate,” he said.

Office space availability in southern Westchester County varies depending on its quality, and southern ­West­ches­ter has a lower rate of office vacancy than other parts of the county.

The real estate company CB Richard Ellis tracks office vacancy throughout the county, and it groups Yonkers in a southern West­chester region with Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Pelham, Mamaroneck, Larchmont and ­East­ches­ter.
According to CB Richard Ellis’ second quarter 2009 real estate survey, southern Westchester had a 45.5 percent vacancy for Class A office space in six buildings and a 5.6 percent vacancy for Class B office space in 23 buildings. 
That gives the region an overall 15.3 percent vacancy rate for the two classes of office space, compared with a countywide rate of 17.3 percent.