last summer

Last month, the New York Academy of Sciences became the first tenant to sign on the dotted line. The academy signed a 15-year, 40,000-sf lease for the entire 40th floor. According to a source, asking rents at the site range from $50 per sf to $55 per sf, depending upon the floor number. When coupled with incentives, the rents are brought down into the $40s.

Ameriprise, a Minneapolis-based company, currently maintains space in American Express locations in Lower Manhattan. The 7 WTC location will include executive offices and office space for approximately 50 New York City-based employees currently working in those locations. The company expects to move into the building by mid-2006. Josef Mittlemann, chief operating officer of Silverstein Properties, says there are other lease deals "in the pipeline accelerating; we look forward to a very successful 2006."Simon Wasserberger, first vice president of CB Richard Ellis, and Cathy Giliberti of Silverstein Properties handled the negotiations. Ameriprise was represented by Trammell Crow's James Silberfein, Michael Liss and Richard Fahey. The agency leasing team from CB Richard Ellis is led by Mary Ann Tighe, chief executive officer of the firm's New York Tri-State Region, and Stephen B. Siegel, chairman, Global Brokerage. "Downtown is the financial capital of the world, and Ameriprise Financial's decision underscores the allure of both the area's great business environment and one of New York's premier new addresses," Wasserberger says.

The 52-story tower is bound by Greenwich, Vesey, Washington and Barclay streets. Tenant floors begin at the 11th floor above grade. The untenanted first 10 floors largely are given over to a series of huge bays housing transformers for a Con Edison substation.