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Bloomberg
One year after the tech giant announced it would bring hundreds of jobs to New York, and on the heels of major Manhattan lease announcements by Facebook Inc and Amazon.com Inc, the city’s real estate industry is wondering when the iPhone developer will make its move.
“The absence is surprising,†Jim Underhill, chief executive officer of commercial-property firm Cresa.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has a limited presence in New York beyond its popular retail stores. Facebook and Google, meanwhile, have become two of Manhattan’s biggest office tenants, a strong signal that technology companies are tapping into the educated workforce in a city long known as a media and finance stronghold. Even Amazon, which walked away from plans to build a new office hub in Queens early this year, recently signed a lease for 335,000 square feet near Hudson Yards.
Apple is still hunting for office space in Manhattan, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The company is trying to figure out how much space it needs and could take more than 250,000 square feet, one of the people said.
Apple was reported earlier this year to be in talks with Vornado Realty Trust for a lease at its James A. Farley Post Office Building, but Facebook may end up getting the prized space instead. The project is across Eighth Avenue from Pennsylvania Station, and just east of the buildings where Facebook and Amazon signed their new leases.
As recently as two months ago, Apple looked at Essex Crossing, a Lower East Side development.