Exiting Hedge Funds Driving Down Office Rents

From Crain's: "The problem is that a growing number of ailing or dissolving hedge funds and private equity firms are also looking to unload lavishly outfitted offices that they leased at eye-popping prices. Before the financial markets crumbled, these companies paid up to $200 a square foot—more than double the average—for offices in midtown's trophy towers. ... A growing number of vacancies at the best addresses is contributing to the overall rent declines. ... The choices are in some of the city's swankiest buildings. Citigroup, pulling the plug on its Old Lane hedge fund, recently dumped roughly 20,000 square feet at 500 Park Ave. into the market, Similarly, the demise of The Carlyle Group's Blue Wave fund unleashed 24,000 square feet at 1177 Sixth Ave. SAB Capital is seeking takers for 9,000 square feet it occupies at the General Motors Building, while Clinton Group wants to unload 30,000 square feet at 9 W. 57th St."