"The fringe is the first to be impacted," Popkin adds. "It's still a matter of location, location, location. We'll still see a continued trend of outplacement of back office because companies can move it to $30 per sf space in the suburbs." Popkin says traditional businesses are still going forward with plans, but acknowledges companies are tightening their belts. "Brokers have to work a little bit harder," he says.

"Most of the subleasing is in locations such as the West Side, some Downtown and even in the West 30s," Taubin says. "These will likely revert to past rental rates." He notes that traditional businesses are not generally interested in dot-com space, adding that throughout the market people are "putting plans on hold and everyone's just waiting to see.

"It's not like it was during the dot-com craze," he says. "It's scary. There's a plethora of dot-com space coming back. Sometimes you can go into dot-com space and it's like a ghost town with pool tables still set up and kitchens still stocked."

Both Popkin and Taubin note it is difficult to quantify the impact. Popkin says the dot-com leases were an insignificant minority, but notes Insignia/ESG did 65 technology deals in 2000 for 2.14 million sf and in the first two months of 2001 (as of March 1) has done six deals for 100,000 sf of space.

When asked if they had seen brokers lining up tenants for properties, Popkin notes, "I don't think brokers are long-sighted in that regard. They're not focusing on years down the road."