Company Empire HealthChoice, Inc. & Forest City Myrtle Associates (See entry for related Empire Insurance Group deal.)
Date Authorized 2/12/2002 (deal closed 4/24/02)
Project Site 9 MetroTech South, Brooklyn
Competing Sites ?

Empire HealthChoice (d/b/a Empire BlueCross and BlueShield) was displaced from WTC 1 in the attacks of September 11th.

Type of transaction/ Company type Commercial Retention / insurance & developer
Maximum  City Subsidy ?

City Amount Tied to Job Retention

 0

City Amount Tied to Job Growth

 0
Type(s) of City benefits Savings from lower interest rate on $145,500,000 in discounted financing for FC Myrtle's construction needs, according to LL69 report of FY 2002.

Incoming tenants may receive:

  • possible as-of-right benefits from programs such as the Relocation and Employment Assistance Program (REAP), which provides a $3,000 annual tax break for up to 12 years for each employee relocated from Manhattan to another borough.
  • possible tax savings on energy and commercial improvements
Benefits from New York  State Possible state tax savings on energy and commercial improvements
Total Benefits Allowed ?
Benefits Distributed to Date (according to Local Law 69 Report FY) 0 (Building not to be completed until Spring 2003)
 
Promised Job Retention According to IDA documents, the FC Myrtle loan will retain only 50 employees. However, the LL69 report on this project includes 1,647 retained jobs.

News reports about 9 MetroTech agree that approximately 1,300 employees of Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield who were displaced by the 9/11 attacks will be relocated to occupy eight floors of the building. An additional 700 Human Resources employees will join them for a total of approximately 2,000 jobs.

Job recruitment  
Projected job growth While the discounted financing provided to FC Myrtle will not directly create jobs at the development company, 651 jobs are predicted to be created through this project in the LL69 report.
Total Promised Jobs 2,298, according to LL69 report
Jobs Reported in LL69 Report FY 2002 1,647
Layoffs ?
Length of Contract 1.5 years (construction period)
 
Project Purpose Promotion of commercial growth and job retention post 9/11.

More broadly, 9 MetroTech will be the last building to go up as part of the 16-acre MetroTech Center complex, a major Forest City Ratner development in downtown Brooklyn. The new building will include 19 stories of office space and two stories of mechanical space.

The project would also be the first IDA supported ground-breaking since the September 11th attacks.
Clawbacks ?
Background/Since then... Construction on 9 MetroTech began in January 2002 and the last steel beam was put in place during a "topping-out" ceremony for the building in September 2002.

Empire, the building's major tenant, had also signed  a 14 year lease in October, 2002 with Tishman Speyer Properties L.P. for a building at 11 W. 42 Street-near Fifth Avenue.

According to news sources, the asking price for space at 9 MetroTech was approximately $42 per square foot.

Corporate Notes Empire HealthChoice, Inc. does business as Empire BlueCross and BlueShield. The health insurance company was founded in Albany in 1935 and currently has over 4.8 members and 16,600 employer accounts.

Forest City Ratner Corp. (FCRC), parent of FC Myrtle, is also the developer of the new headquarters building of The New York Times (see separate subsidy entry) to be built at Eighth Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets in Manhattan.

FCRC is an affiliate of Forest City Enterprises, Inc., a $4 billion NYSE-listed real estate company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. Forest City Enterprises develops commercial and residential real estate throughout the US. 

A note on sources -- Information in this deal comes from GJNY's examination of project agreements obtained through Freedom of Information Law requests, as well as news reports, minutes and notes taken at board meetings, and communication with our allies. The entries are a work in progress. For more information about the documentation behind GJNY's database, or to let us know about any developments that are not yet reflected here, please contact us at gjny@ctj.org or (212) 414-9394.
Date last updated: 07/15/03