Ford recounts details of Sept. 11

Real Estate Weekly, Feb 27, 2002

Cushman & Wakefield senior managing director Steven Ford, whose company manages millions of SF close to Ground Zero, recalled Sept. 11 and its after effects in a recent speech. Ford was addressing the board of governors of the Building Owners and Managers Association.

"We will never forget Sept. 11, 2001," he said. "I recall being at a meeting in Midtown Manhattan when Cushman & Wakefield's president and CEO Arthur Mirante called to advise us that the first plane had hit the World Trade Center."

Ford then recounted how he and a colleague, Bill Toohey, took the subway to Downtown Manhattan, where Cushman & Wakefield manages 20 million SF (the firm manages 300 million SF around the world). "Smoke was pouring into the subway car, and at one point, we thought this could be it," Ford said.

Ford, Toohey and several other Cushman & Wakefield employees spent the rest of the day and night making sure the Cushman & Wakefield-managed properties were protected, stabilized and had the emergency supplies required.

Ford then offered the following details about the impact on the Downtown real estate: 13.4 million SF of class A office space in the World Trade Center was destroyed, 18.5 million SF of class A office space was damaged to varying degrees, and 2.6 million SF of class B and C space was damaged. To date, of the 18.5 million SF of damaged class A space, 10 million SF is now operational. The remaining damaged space will be operational in anywhere from two weeks to as long as five years.

The Cushman & Wakefield executive also praised the efforts of Verizon, the dominant local telephone company, and Con Edison, which returned communications and electrical power to the area quickly. As a result of a warm fall and winter in the New York City area, and the tremendous clean up work of the Ground Zero workers, the area "now looks like a construction site," Ford said.