Those that can have not been shy. Equity Office Properties Trust, Vornado Realty Trust and Boston Properties have been reported as the finalists for Rockefeller Center. Vornado Realty and Boston Properties are also two names that keep turning up as potential buyers for the World Trade Center in Manhattan. We'll keep our options open and not comment on what we do from here. At this stage in the market, it has become a real timing game, observes Richard Gunthel, group head of Real Estate Investment Banking and Financial Institutions at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown.
Trophies produce good carry cash flow in spite of cycles.
If anything is going to remain occupied in a down cycle it is the trophy. Arguably, every cycle produces rents higher than the previous cycle, so we should still have room to grow. Whether cautious about the market or an enthusiastic investor, LaSalle's Gordon and CB Richard Ellis' Vorwaller both observed that while trophy properties are coming to market at a regular pace, they are not moving as quickly as they'd been. Obviously, they are being concluded, but it is the second or third bidder that makes the deal. Primary bidders can just move on because they know another deal will shortly be coming down the pipeline.