"Large organizations will be the core of New York City and they will want a different kind of space," Speyer told a Nov. 29 gathering of real estate professionals sponsored by Shulte Roth & Zabel, a Manhattan-based law firm. "We will meet that need through new zoning and new construction in areas that haven't been looked at before including the far West side of Manhattan and Long Island City."

Large corporations forced by the tragic events of Sept. 11 to re-evaluate how they operate won't flee CBDs, Speyer told the audience at the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, but will instead manage risk in new ways.

"The likelihood is that companies will want to disperse space in a given area--millions of sf of space in different phone systems and electrical grids that are within a five-minute walk of each other. Companies don't want to face the risk of being wiped out, but don't want to disperse their people," Speyer said.