Brookfield Says It’s Making Progress With Merrill, West Side Development

Brookfield Properties seems to be moving along with a renewal with Merrill Lynch at the World Financial Center, which, at least as of last month was likely to mean a five-year lease. On a conference call with investors today, a Brookfield executive said the company was in “active and productive discussions with Merrill,” though didn’t expand beyond that.

It also looks like things have progressed a bit with Brookfield and its plans for an office complex two blocks west of Penn Station. When we last checked in with CEO Ric Clark in December, he told us that the site was likely to have two large office buildings, with about 5 million square feet in full.

Mr. Clark said today construction of a platform over the rail yards on the site would start as early as June, with completion in 2010. The new  complex would be done by 2013, but Mr. Clark did not say in the call that he had an anchor tenant lined up, and without one, it would seem less likely that construction of the towers would start.

[Article adjusted].