"Downtown has such an amazing future that has been accelerated with the advent of Liberty Bonds and a residential explosion," Harkins says. "That is really changing the face of it."
Harkins, who was most recently with the Staubach Co., has worked on transactions in this reviving part of Manhattan for years. In 2001, he helped the SEC become the first institutional investor to re-commit to the area. The SEC, which had been housed in 7 World Trade Center before the building collapsed, now occupies 140,000 sf in the Woolworth Building.
To the real estate veteran, Downtown holds future promise as proven by the fact that roughly half of the top 50 deals done in the last few years were done Downtown. "It's a growing market, instead of a declining one."
In a release about the recent hire, president of Grubb & Ellis New York David Arena says, "Lower Manhattan is the most exciting city market in the world. From the Calatrava train Station to the World Trade Center site to the Goldman Sachs headquarters to the Fulton Street Station--we are seeing history in the making. [Harkins] will join an already impressive team of brokerage professionals and he brings a unique insight and commitment to Lower Manhattan and the clients he serves."
Harkins says that together with Arena and others in the office they are trying "to figure out the type of presence we are going to have." Other brokers he hopes will follow his lead and return focus to Lower Manhattan. In the last several years there has been a shift away from looking to that area of the city for real estate deals. "Rather than diversifying away from it, I have stuck with it. And hopefully I can aspire some of my comrades."
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