GlobeSt.com: Given current market conditions, where will your focus lie in 2010?Abdo: In this market we are working with tenants to help them protect their cash position. There have been a lot of lease extensions and renewals. Tenants are reluctant to make a commitment until they can see their 2011 book of business. And, even more important, until they get a feel for what their head count is going to be going forward because jobs are really the driving link in the commercial real estate market. What we have is a stock market that is showing positive signs every day. But traditionally the real estate market in New York City is around one year to 18 months behind the stock market. So when the big crash happened last year it took a while for it to trick down to real estate. Now, the effects of that are being felt and even though stocks are starting to climb again, a lot of that profitability is due to downsizing rather than increased sales. This effects the way both tenants and landlords are evaluating transactions going forward. So from the tenants' side it is a great time to lock in on 25% to 40% below rental rates at the height of the market. If you have a lease expiring in 2010, you are going to be in a good position to make a sharp deal. Landlords, on the other hand, are reaching a bit more. You primarily see it in the concessions--in terms of free rent and work contributions. Landlords are naturally going to resist the lowering of the base rent and in many cases if a landlord is highly leveraged or has an onerous mortgage they can't go below a certain base rent so that precludes them from certain segments of the market.

GlobeSt.com: What does this year hold in store for landlords?

Abdo: It's going to depend on the landlord, as trite as that sounds. Traditional, long-time landlords with low mortgages can basically do anything they want and what they're going to do is keep their good tenants. They aren't going to let them go. If a highly qualified tenant walks in the door they're going to do whatever it takes to get them in the building. Landlords that bought properties in the last five to seven years might be in a different position where they have to achieve a certain rent. So the opportunities are going to vary from building to building, market to market and landlord to landlord. Another factor is the massive amount of sublets we're seeing. So that is adding a lot of product to the market. And even from the landlords' side of the ledger that is rented space, which, for the most part, they are still receiving income on. So it's not reported as direct space net absorption. When those subleases start maturing, some of them are going to get leased and some are not. And certain companies are probably going to be forced under because they can't rent their space. Others will wind up living out the term. And in the case of the ones that don't live out their term the space is eventually going to come back to the landlords because I don't see all of that sublet space being absorbed in the amount of time that's left on those leases. That's going to cause further downward pressure on the landlords to reach more for tenants. For example, some of the class A buildings in Midtown that came online in the last two years and were asking $150 to $160 a square foot are now look at leases in the low $60s. I've seen the trophy properties drop as much as 50%, while the B and C buildings are relatively shorter drops, but only because they don't have as far to travel. The overall average, though, is somewhere in the 25% to 30% range.