David Friedman, Northeast regional vice president for Louis Dreyfus Property Group, tells globest.com, "There has definitely been a number of calls [since the World Trade Center disaster] from New York City firms and they are looking for existing space."

Friedman notes that his firm's office properties in Westchester and Fairfield counties are just about fully leased. He told the company broker representatives that contacted his firm in the past few days about a number of sublease opportunities at its office buildings at 10 and 20 Westport Road in Wilton, CT.

He adds that according to his contacts in the brokerage community, "there has been a flurry of activity" from New York City firms seeking available space in Westchester, Connecticut and New Jersey, particularly Jersey City.

Several speakers at the Westchester County Board of Realtors Commercial Investment Division meeting held on Thursday also confirm that New York City companies at or near the World Trade Center site are now looking for space in Westchester and Connecticut.

Andrew Greenspan, a partner in GHP Office Realty in White Plains, told the gathering, "Yesterday there were frantic, frequent calls from people looking for space." GHP Office Realty owns approximately one million sf of space in the tri-state area, specifically in New Jersey, Rockland, Westchester and Fairfield counties. "We got calls from financial institutions, not necessarily in the World Trade Center but in and around there, for large and medium blocks of space," Greenspan says.

Patrick Colwell, senior managing director for the Investment Services Group for Grubb & Ellis, told the attendees at the Board of Realtors session in White Plains that market conditions in the suburbs have changed in the past few days. "Actually we've heard that there are a substantial number of new tenants in the marketplace that are scouring, New Jersey, Westchester and Connecticut for space because we lost about 14 million sf of space in Manhattan," he said.