'Astute' Russians lease 75,000 sf at World Trade - International Center for Business Cooperation, World Trade Center

Real Estate Weekly, Jan 8, 1992 by Lois Weiss

The eighth floor will be entirely dedicated to office space, Stuckey said. A portion of that space will be used for the ICBC while another section will contain more small companies.

"The people we represented and worked with in Russia were some of the most straight-forward, reliable business people I have ever worked with," Stuckey said. "They never misled us and they came to do business. They are the kind of people I would welcome the opportunity to do many real estate transactions with, and expect to do so, in the future."

In Rossi's eyes, however there was a problem explaining a simple lease, let alone the complicated one which was finally worked out. "The people that we spoke to had a concept of rent that was different than yours and mine," he said. "They couldn't justify it in terms of the Communist Society. They said to me, 'Justify this profit that you are exacting on it.' When we explained that most of the component of rent goes toward the landlord getting back its investment, they finally understood."

Stuckey and Gronich both disputed Rossi's view of the Russians as being naive. "I don't think there was a difficult time in understanding how rent got paid," Stuckey said. "It's misleading or inaccurate to say that there was a lack of understanding.

The lease also had to be approved by the State Department. The Russians were represented by Debevoise & Plimpton, and Stuckey said the firm has both a Russian and Washington division which aided in negotiations. "We negotiated a good and attractive deal for them," he said.

The Russians also put up letters of credits, Rossi said, secured by American banks, to ensure the payment of rent. Inkombank, one of the five largest private commercial banks in Russia, will assist in the financing of the project.

The Phillips Janson Group, Inc., was selected by the ICBC to design its space and supervise construction.