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GlobeSt.com: What is the status on construction activity at Manhattan West? Has the plan changed in any other way?

Wharton: In terms of the reduction of office space, we have flexibility in the zoning. We can substitute some residential for commercial. With 5.4 million square feet, we think there’s room for reducing the office and replacing it with the residential. In terms of the timing, we haven’t changed our plans. We are still intending to go forward with the platform over the track quite soon. We are going to go forward with the first office building as soon as we secure an anchor tenant. One of the nice things about the residential is that we can build it simultaneously with the office, so we could do the two of those at the same time. The residential demand we know is there. It becomes more of a north Chelsea location for the residential, and certainly for rental apartments, demand is very strong. We can seeing doing the two together.

GlobeSt.com: Any word on a potential anchor tenant?

Wharton: There are a couple of large tenant requirements that are in the marketplace, and Manhattan has a deep pool of office users. It’s 400 million square feet. As big as it sounds to have 5.4 million square feet, to have some pre-leased tenants is not that big of a stretch. The other thing that we look at is the stock of the New York City office market pre-dates 1980 in terms of the vintage of the building. There’s certainly demand for modern office space.

GlobeSt.com: Do you think new office construction is viable in NYC despite the sluggish leasing market?

Wharton: New construction offers value, and we are very positive on the outlook for office demand. We think New York City will continue to be a vibrant environment and a place where not only financial services, but media and technology companies are growing. There’s always a vitality to New York City, even when other office markets in other parts of the country may not be as strong. New York City seems to have its own resilience.

GlobeSt.com: Does the same go for other gateway cities?

Wharton: Brookfield is international, so we have a site in London that we are planning to go ahead with called Bishop’s Gate, a 950,000-square-foot office building. We also have a site in Perth, Australia, Toronto, as well as Calgary. And then we have a number of sites in the planning stage, including two in Denver, three in Houston, as well as in Washington DC. There are number of development opportunities that we are pursuing nationally and internationally.

GlobeSt.com: What other markets is Brookfield eyeing for new construction?

Wharton: We are always on the lookout for new development sites and also for acquisitions. In terms of development, we have a big presence in so many cities in the US that we see a lot of opportunities where we simply own office buildings and we look at those and decide on them case to case where we think it is compelling.