Gore's presidential bid for Durst's One Bryant Park

Real Estate Weekly, Nov 14, 2007 by Daniel Geiger

Generation Asset Management, the investment fund co-founded by Al Gore and that announced on Monday an alliance with the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins

Caufield & Byers, is searching the Manhattan market for space in which to relocate its offices from Washington DC.

The firm, which also has a European headquarters in London, is focused on One Bryant Park, where a source with knowledge of the deal says it is in "very preliminary talks" to take about 10,000 s/f on one of the two floors that will be occupied by the building's developer, the Durst Organization. Durst announced in February that it will occupy the 54-story tower's 48th and 49th floors, but it's not yet clear which one of the two Generation is negotiating for or what rents are being discussed.

Rew-online.com first reported the firm's search on Monday.

"A lease is not yet out," said the source, who would not speak on the record because of the sensitive nature of the talks and because no one involved in the negotiations has been authorized to speak about the deal.

1.6 million of the building's 2.1 million square feet are leased to Bank of America and a series of high priced leases with other tenants has filled all but the building's 37th floor, which is now asking for $185 per square foot and is probably a good indication of the sky high rents Durst would look to charge Generation.

"We would be delighted to have Al Gore in the building," said Douglas Durst, who is a co-president of the Durst Organization. Durst would not confirm however if a deal was in the process of being done or if Gore's investment firm was even considering the space.

One Bryant Park would seem to be an ideal location for Generation Asset Management because it is considered one of the most environmentally friendly and energy efficient commercial buildings in world, which would reflect the firm's mission of investing in companies and technologies that promote sustainability.

Richard Campbell, a spokesman for Generation Asset Management, told Real Estate Weekly that the investment firm was interested in the building. According to Campbell, the move from Washington DC was precipitated by the attractiveness of Manhattan as a global financial hub that would allow the firm more investment opportunities and better access to capital. Generation had been based in Washington DC he said because it had been convenient to Gore and other principals at the firm, who were based in the nation's capital.

Campbell said that the potential lease at One Bryant Park was unrelated to Monday's announcement of the partnership with Kleiner Perkins. But both seem to signify a defined shift towards an investment-based approach to Gore's much-celebrated environmental activism. Gore recently won the Nobel Prize for his work raising awareness for climate change and starred in the Academy Award winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Published reports have painted the partnership as the new vehicle through which Gore will attack environmental degradation and carbon emissions.

Campbell described the impetus behind the alliance between Generation and Perkins Kleiner as a way to merge Gore's political clout and the wide recognition he has received as a champion for environment with the reputation that John Doerr, who is a partner at Kleiner Perkins, holds in the investment world.

Doerr is considered among Silicon Valley's most powerful investors and was among the hugely successful initial backers of Amazon.com and Google. As part of the collaboration, Gore has been named a partner at Kleiner Perkins and Doerr will join Generation's advisory board.

For now, the two firms have described their collaboration loosely; mainly as a way to exchange market information and pool their respective expertise, Kleiner in new technology and Generation in environmental friendly investments. For Generation, the purview of its investment goals with Kleiner will likely be different from the investments the firm has made on its own. Generation has focused on equities of large public firms that broadly comply with the protocols for sustainability.

"It can be energy efficiency, but it would also be programs for retaining staff and creating sustainability with the workforce," Campbell said.

Kleiner and Generation plan to work together in investing specifically in alternative and sustainable energy sources. According to a source, the two firms are planning to form a joint fund that will invest in green technologies.