4 | AIRPORT GARAGE OPPOSED AUGUST 14, 2017 | VOL. 53, No. 33
15 | TEACHER EXCHANGE
YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS
A blooming enterprise
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White Plains CBD drives return of large office leasing BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH rdeffenbaugh@westfairinc.com
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between Republican and Democratic members of the board. Legislators ultimately passed the Immigrant Protection Act by a vote of 10-5 on Aug. 7, with two members — one Democrat and one Republican — absent. All present members of the Democratic caucus voted in favor of the bill and were joined by Republican legislators David Gelfarb and James Maisano. However, immediately following the announcement of the bill’s passage, Westchester County Executive Robert
or Westchester County’s office market, the first half of 2017 has marked the return of the big deal, according to market researchers in the county. White Plains, in particular, is experiencing growing demand for both Class A and Class B space even as prices seem to be tightening. Leasing deals below 5,000 square feet have dominated demand in the county’s office market since 2016, according to a report from Newmark Knight Frank (formerly Newmark Grubb Knight Frank). But the number of those smaller deals shrank 23.7 percent during the first two quarters of 2017, while deals for leases of more than 50,000 square feet accounted for 32.4 percent of the total leasing activity in the second quarter. Newmark's report said transactions in that size range were "nonexistent" last year. Small and midsize deals are down 11 and 27 percent, respectively, during the first half of 2017, according to Newmark. Meanwhile, Newmark reports the volume of large deals has nearly doubled. The increase in major deals is part of what has researchers at CBRE Group Inc. in Stamford concluding Westchester's office market is trending in a positive direction. While the 349,929 square feet leased in Westchester's office market last quarter was slightly below the 351,015 square feet in the first quarter, CBRE researchers pointed to promising signs in the county's back-to-back quarters of positive net absorption and low availability rates. "As the year goes on, we anticipate demand continuing to grow and leasing velocity to increase," said Robert Caruso, senior managing director of CBRE's Westchester and Fairfield county operations. Leasing was strongest in the White
» Astorino, page 6
» White Plains, page 6
From left: Down to Earth Markets community engagement coordinator Dacotah Rousseau talks with the company’s founder, Miriam Haas, and president, Jon Zeltsman. Photo by Ryan Deffenbaugh.
Immigrant Protection Act passes, but Astorino plans to veto BY ALEESIA FORNI aforni@westfariinc.com
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ust hours after the Immigrant Protection Act was passed by the Westchester County Board of Legislators, County Executive Robert P. Astorino announced his own plans to veto the legislation. Introduced in February, the Immigrant Protection Act prevents Westchester County from using any of its resources to assist in federal investigations based on race, gender, sexual orientation,
religion, ethnicity or national origin. “The intent of this bill is to create a policy of public safety for all in Westchester County,” said Majority Leader Catherine Borgia, an Ossining Democrat who sponsored the bill. “In surveys all across the country, immigrants have reported that they are less likely to contact police officers if they have been the victim of a crime because of potential (immigration) consequences. Westchester is too diverse a county for our residents to live in fear.” The bill’s language was the subject of months of back-and-forth negotiations