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When N2K Inc. was looking for office space, the Internet music company checked out lofts in SoHo and the Flatiron district, the hip neighborhoods that many new media companies call home.
But the lofts were often raw space with poor electrical systems, and the cost of upgrading was prohibitive, says Jon Diamond, vice chairman at N2K.
So after visiting 55 Broad St., a building whose wiring had recently been modernized to include a fiberoptic communications network and satellite uplinks on the roof, the company was ready to sign a lease on the spot.
"It was like a turnkey operation," Mr. Diamond remembers. N2K became the first tenant in December 1995, moving into 13,000 square feet in the newly named New York Information Technology Center.
Once the home of the ill-fated Drexel Burnham Lambert, 55 Broad St. had languished in the death valley of downtown real estate until Bill Rudin and his family resurrected it as a technological haven for new media companies. Armed with a crash course in T1 lines, Rudin Management Co. painted an e-mail address on the front door and set about recruiting firms like N2K, which produces advertiser-supported entertainment sites on the World Wide Web. Occupancy is currently at 75%, and leasing...