Placemaking and downtown redevelopment on LI

Long Island as a whole is often seen as simply a suburb of New York City, but in reality, it has many downtown centers with lots of suburbia in between. Expanding the stock of smaller office space in downtowns can provide a greater variety of locations for firms that may not be looking for a location along the LIE. According to the U.S. Census, about half of all Americans that are working for firms, not self employed or unemployed, work for firms with less than 500 employees, most of these working for firms with less than 100 employees. Of the increments studied, the largest percentage (18%) work for firms between 20 and 99 employees. Firms of this size are ideal for smaller offices in mixed use settings. They are generally more flexible in their special requirements than firms with larger numbers of employees. Suburban office markets, with few exceptions, have significantly higher vacancy rates than those in downtown locations. Long Island's office vacancy rates may not be as high as other suburban areas, but they are still increasing. Recent trends in vacancy rates follow this pattern. At the end of the second quarter (June 30, 2009), national office vacancy rates were estimated at around 15.9%. In downtowns (central business districts), that rate stood at 13.7%, while for offices in the suburbs, vacancy rates were up to 16.3%. A superficial analysis demonstrates that despite the recession-induced high vacancy rates, downtowns tend to fare much better than large suburban office parks. A closer look reaffirms this idea: In Long Island, office vacancy rates were 8.8% at the end of the second quarter. A study by NAI Long Island broke down these numbers by region and office type. Though the definitions are flexible, class A and B office space generally refer to larger, newer office buildings, whereby class C office is the type of building that would be found in a mixed-use downtown center. About 31% of Long Island buildings are class A, 27% are class B, and 42% are class C. The report finds: Note that in almost every Long Island region, the highest vacancy rates are in the class A office buildings, while the lowest rates are in the class C buildings. These numbers demonstrate that downtowns serve as a more competitive real estate market for office space. The "brains" that compile our nation's top employees are drawn to downtowns with a sense of place. Christopher Leinberger says it very well in his recent book, The Option of Urbanism: Build a great place, offering the choice of many ways of living, including all kinds of drivable sub-urban and walkable urban options, and they will come - young entrepreneurs, the venture capitalists, the skilled technicians, and the school teachers. If only drivable sub-urban living is offered, the metropolitan area is nothing but an undifferentiated commodity. Offering drivable suburban product plus many kinds of walkable urbanism is the way to broaden the appeal of the region, its economy, and its tax base, not to mention the richness of the quality of life." Eric Alexander is executive director of Vision Long Island.