For a variety of real-estate industry/finance specific reasons, commercial rents in NYC are very "sticky". Many building owners would rather space sit empty for years rather than rent the space at lower rents (for various degrees of lower). In short, both the near-term and long-term future outlook would have to be quite bleak before we see a broad and substantial lowering of commercial rental rates in NYC.
I guess that's kind of my point. Google clearly doesn't anticipate either a natural change in the economic situation or regulatory intervention. The latter is what I find disturbing, that they're so sure they're willing to bet $2bn on it.
