Newsday (New York, NY)

September 10, 2002 Tuesday QUEENS EDITION

SECTION: BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY, Pg. A51

LENGTH: 513 words

HEADLINE: Liberty Bonds For B'klyn Tower

BYLINE: By Julie Claire Diop. STAFF WRITER

BODY:
New York City and the state of New York jointly approved $113.9 million in tax exempt bonds for a 10-story office tower above the Atlantic Terminal transit hub in Brooklyn. If the bonds get final approvals, it will be the first time Liberty bonds are being used to finance a commercial project.

The bonds will be used by Forest City Ratner Companies to complete offices for The Bank of New York, which will occupy 80 percent of the new structure. The bank, which signed a 20-year lease, plans to relocate about 1,400 of its 7,700 employees to Brooklyn to follow a federal regulator's recommendation to decentralize its operations from its Manhattan headquarters.

President George W. Bush authorized New York to issue $8 billion in tax exempt Liberty bonds through 2004 for commercial and residential projects in the state as part of an economic stimulus package he signed in March.

The facility on Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues will have 396,000 square feet of office space above a new 470,000 square foot shopping center and a restored Long Island Rail Road station. Bank of New York employees will have access to nine subway lines from the building. The city Industrial Development Agency's board of directors will vote on the issuance today.

The watchdog group Good Jobs New York believes the project will spur development in Brooklyn. "On the surface it looks like a fine project," said Bettina Damiani at Good Jobs New York, who has previously criticized Liberty bonds for financing three housing projects that contained few affordable units.

The organization, however, questioned why The Bank of New York received a $37.5-million grant in August through the WTC Job Creation and Retention Program for keeping 7,700 jobs in New York City.

The grant enabled the bank to keep many workers in offices downtown and to find new offices, said Janel Patterson, a spokeswoman at the Economic Development Corporation. "It's all part of putting the pieces together."

And the Liberty bonds let Forest City Ratner "firm up the deal" with The Bank of New York by giving the bank favorable lease terms, Patterson said. The new offices "should be built," said Ron Shiffman, director of the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development in Brooklyn. "The Bank of New York is a good tenant. Hopefully it will affirmatively hire from the surrounding communities."

Still, Shiffman is concerned the development will increase housing prices and displace the local community. He recommends the city charge fees on the loans to be used toward affordable housing projects in Brooklyn.

Others focus on how the development will improve a dark transportation terminal with few amenities and the neighborhood around it.

"It will put a tremendous amount of money in the neighborhood," said David Rosenberg, managing director at Manhattan-based retail leasing firm Robert K. Futterman & Associates Llc. "And from a transportation and accessibility point of view, it's terrific. These are all positive aspects to make it a very strong project."