I'm not that far from Bela Square and I can tell you, based on night time illumination that lease up is not going well. I don't think they've reached 25%. I'm fascinated by the ferocity of the resistance to cutting the asking rents. I get the desire not to firesale, but for buildings that are not subject to rent control, there is room to forward adjust. No one will want to lose a good tenant by jacking 25% in one year, but if the market gets hot, you can start bumping ahead of inflation by 5 or 10%.
Getting 80% of your desired rent has to be better for the books that carrying an 80% vacancy with no rental income on said units. Seems to be a common issue though, holding back supply rather than cutting into rental rates.
***
Bringing that back to this site.........surely the existing numbers are predicated on higher rents that they are likely to achieve, at least in the first 2-3 years after completion (assuming they break ground this year). I do wonder what the bean counters are thinking and who is financing this?