Industry Believes Downtown Will Remain Hurricane Challenged

NEW YORK CITY-Despite numerous pledges made and press conferences held in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, a surprisingly high number of commercial property executives don’t expect to see significant change in Lower Manhattan when it comes to storm vulnerability. So says a new study from industry research firm Marks Paneth which, counterintuitively, also reports that a majority of industry participants expect the value of commercial property to rise.

In the most recent Marks Paneth Gotham Commercial Real Estate Monitor survey of over 100 top commercial real estate professionals across the city, half of executives say they’re “not confident” that there will be significant government effort to prevent future flooding. Yet, the majority—51%—believe commercial property in Lower Manhattan will get pricier this year and only 6% believe property values in Lower Manhattan will drop this year. Just seven months ago, in June 2013, nearly a third of executives (32%) thought values would decline.