In a follow-up look at Silicon Alley, The Data Center Journal posted my following article on the scope of NYC's commercial real estate market and its rapidly growing broadband needs. Within the article, find out how companies like tw telecom, a leading provider of Business Ethernet for enterprises in Manhattan and throughout the U.S., are addressing broadband issues with solutions such as Dynamic Capacity.
As economic issues threaten both the U.S. and the world, businesses are gearing up for what they hope will be a busy and positive fourth quarter for 2012 and for an even better 2013. Businesses in New York City, though, are playing at a slightly different level. Here, the economy continues to thrive; the city stands strong as the biggest regional economy in the United States and the second-largest city economy in the world (after Tokyo).[i]
As 2012 nears its close, the east-coast technology scene in particular is rapidly advancing. New York City is home to a range of industries including, but not limited to, finance, fashion, media, real estate, technology and telecom. In the past year alone, social-media giants Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, along with Skype, game maker Zynga and other key technology companies, have opened shop in the city. Google, for instance, made history when it purchased New York City’s 111 Eighth Avenue for a reported cost of $2 billion, with the space equating to 2.9 million square feet. Gilt Groupe signed a direct 10-year lease at 2 Park Avenue after subletting space at the building for two years, doubling its offices to 100,000 square feet. Facebook acquired 60,000 square feet at 335 Madison Avenue.
Combined, technology and media companies rank as the city’s top leasers of office space in the first quarter of 2012, accounting for 28% of the new leases signed in that period, compared with 26% for finance (the longtime leader), according to Cushman & Wakefield.[ii]
Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures in Manhattan comments, “The [city’s] talent pool will increase; there will be more startups; and the tech industry in NYC will grow and develop.”[iii] In addition, Wilson believes that instead of “making a beeline to Silicon Valley,” more and more college graduates will flock to New York’s “Silicon Alley,” an area roughly between 30th and Canal Streets that is home to the mass of technology companies that are established and emerging in the city.
What Does New York City’s Economic Growth Mean for Broadband?
With the influx of an increasing number of companies in various sectors comes a much bigger demand for quality broadband in New York City. The Center for an Urban Future highlighted in a May 2012 report that inadequate broadband service was a key problem facing New York City’s effort to expand its technology sector.
In response to the issue, in June of this year, New York City Deputy Mayor Robert K. Steel and other city officials unveiled a series of Mayor Bloomberg’s initiatives designed to widen the availability of broadband Internet access in the city.[iv]
Read full article, here.
*Source information compiled by Michael Raspanti, Account Executive for tw telecom New York City.
