What the Internet boom gaveth, the bust taketh away. That's the lesson that the Parish of Trinity Church, a Manhattan landlord since 1705, has learned.

For Trinity, the boom looked like a godsend, filling newly renovated office space in 23 former industrial buildings at rents as high as $50 per square foot. "The dot-coms were to the rental market what the Japanese were to the sales market," in the 1980s boom, said Trinity's director of leasing, Stephen Heyman.

Internet-related companies weren't the only renters clamoring for space in a tighter market, said Heyman, "but they were leading the charge, particularly in terms of pricing."


Most of Trinity's office buildings were built in the 1920s and 1930s and were intended for printers and other industrial businesses. The parish started to convert the buildings to office space in the 1980s, attracting advertising agencies and other tenants who would pay more than the $6 to $15 per square foot that the printers had paid. In 1996, the Religion News Service estimated that the properties produced annual rental income of $60 million. Heyman wouldn't comment on that figure or provide a current estimate.