N.Y. skyscrapers spread

Press, 31 March 1989, Page 8

N.Y. skyscrapers spread

THEY’VE built a new skyscraper in New York. What’s new to Manhattan in that? you may say.

encased in a shell of post-moder-nist green reflecting-glass. In' Queens it is eye-riveting, for it stands alone, dwarfing the surrounding warehouses, factories and flats. It doesn’t dominate the Queens skyline; it gives it one.

The answer is that the new, shining pillar is not in Manhattan but across the East River in Queens, the city’s untrendy borough known to many people only as the home of Archie Bunker and Mrs Geraldine Ferraro. The building belongs to Citicorp, which will soon move more than 4000 of its employees there from various offices in Manhattan., -J j-The new Citicorp tower would be, eye-catching in its own right, standing 200m.tall with 48 floors

Citicorp reportedly spent about SUS2SOM on the new building, but it should recoup that money rapidly. In Manhattan, the company says it was leasing space at between SUS4O-60 per square foot (by comparison, the cost per square foot of the new office would be about SUS2B, were.it leased rather than owned).

Other boroughs too are at long last experiencing a spill-over from Manhattan. Chase Manhattan, for one, is moving 5000 employees to Metrotech, a development in Brooklyn between Brooklyn Heights and Fort Greene.

As for Citicorp’s employees, the move will not be too dispirit ing. The new building is only one subway stop from one of Citicorp’s midtown Manhattan buildings, the famous 300 m an-gle-roofed landmark on 53rd Street.

Copyright — The Economist