Despite headwinds from the financial services industry, rising construction costs and political squabbling from both municipal and state agencies, leasing activity at the World Trade Center has managed to remain on solid ground. Over the past year, 7 World Trade Center reached 100% occupancy, magazine publisher Condé Nast signed a landmark one-million-square-foot deal at 1 World Trade Center and the City of New York's Human Resources Administration OK'ed a 586,000-square-foot lease to consolidate and move its administrative and executive staff to the upcoming 4 World Trade Center.

Yet as tenants continue to watch their budgets and seek more efficient space, the trickle-down effects from the Condé deal have not completely manifested. Rather, they're just starting to take shape, sources tell Real Estate Forum.

"We thought we would get a share of the financial services market, but we were always driven to diversify our tenant mix with both US and global corporations," says Cushman & Wakefield vice chairman Tara Stacom, who handles leasing at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's 1 World Trade. "We've been seeing an exceptionally strong prospect pool, and when you look at it, it's very diversified, both geographically and by industry group."