Suburban Headquarters are so Yesterday

One probable cause of the creeping commercial and residential rents: The return of corporate executives and headquarters to NYC. Don't worry - there are still big offices outside of the city and there will always be coprorate parks with streets like "Corporate Drive." The NY Times many companies realize it's easier to meet with their various service providers (i-banks, advertising agencies, etc.) as well as be in a "global city" and take advantage of the Bloomberg administration's currying of CEO's. Companies have smaller NYC office where they CEOs work from, like Alcoa which has offices at the Lever House, but still has its much bigger "Alcoa Corporate Center" in Pittsburgh. Alcoa's CEO even said in a NYC Business Summit speech, "We need access to the best and the brightest. We need it when we need it, not a week from today when they can lose a whole day to come and meet with us in Pittsburgh. We need them for breakfast meetings, for just a five-minute break, when the idea or the need comes. We need it every day." In other words, we're paying them so let's make sure they are really at our beck-and-call.

The city can feel the upswing from the 1970s:

Peter J. Solomon, a veteran investment banker who was the city's deputy mayor for economic policy and development in the late 1970's, cited several reasons for New York's renewed appeal to chief executives.

"One is it's fun," he said. "People enjoy being here. It's totally different than the 1970's."

Mr. Solomon recalled those days when city officials spent much of their time fretting over the prospect of another company announcing a move to White Plains or Greenwich, Conn. "We were desperately worried about losing brand names," he said.

Felix G. Rohatyn, another financier who worked to keep the city solvent back then, recalled how Paul Moore Jr., the Episcopal bishop of New York, stood in the pulpit of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine "pleading with C.E.O.'s not to leave the city."