{"id":1565,"date":"2006-09-15T09:51:13","date_gmt":"2006-09-15T17:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2006\/09\/put_that_long-awaited_queens_plaza_renaissance_on_hold.html"},"modified":"2008-01-24T17:49:01","modified_gmt":"2008-01-24T22:49:01","slug":"put_that_longaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/09\/put_that_longaw.html","title":{"rendered":"Put That Long-Awaited Queens Plaza Renaissance On Hold"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Times makes it sound official — Met Life is leaving Queens Plaza<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Five years ago, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company announced plans to move most of its Manhattan employees to Long Island City in a much-ballyhooed effort to establish a low-cost business district in Queens and stem the flow of white-collar jobs to New Jersey. In return, the Giuliani administration granted the company $26.4 million in tax breaks.<\/p>\n

Now it is planning a trip back across the East River. Within the next several days, MetLife is expected to sign a tentative deal to move the bulk of its 1,700 workers back to Manhattan, into a 42nd Street skyscraper — the former Verizon Building — where the rents are at least triple what it pays in Queens, according to city officials and executives working with the company.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

Under the terms of the original deal, the city could demand that the company repay two times the roughly $12 million in incentives it has used up to now.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

City Councilman Eric Gioia, who represents the neighborhood, said he regretted the insurer’s decision. But, he added: “They got a lot of taxpayer benefits to move here. The city should recoup every dime.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to the article, it’s not the rank and file that will benefit from the move but rather the senior executives who found Queens Plaza distasteful:<\/p>\n

Senior company executives apparently found the gritty Queens neighborhood lacking in good restaurants and too far from Midtown, though it is a few subway stops away. The company also complained that an early-morning bus dropped off prisoners released from Rikers Island jails on a street corner about four blocks away from its front door.<\/p>\n

Senior executives and about 1,200 other employees would move to the former Verizon Building, a 41-story skyscraper overlooking Bryant Park at 42nd Street and Avenue of the Americas. Real estate executives say that annual rents in the tower, which is undergoing a $260 million makeover, are about $80 per square foot.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Manhattan snobs!<\/p>\n

See also: Always Poised But Never Actually Burgeoning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Location Scout: Queens Plaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Times makes it sound official — Met Life is leaving Queens Plaza: Five years ago, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company announced plans to move most of its Manhattan employees to Long Island City in a much-ballyhooed effort to establish a low-cost business district in Queens and stem the flow of white-collar jobs to New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-queens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}