'Chase decided to take the money and run'.

EDC president concedes city could not match $100M incentive package posted by New Jersey

Whether or not Chase Manhattan decides to spend millions or a name-change that would reflect its new hometown, the company's announced move proves that Mayoral Infallibility is a concept whose time has not yet come.

None-the-less, Michael Carey, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), played apostle Tuesday as he brought The Word of Rudy to the monthly luncheon of the Young Men's and Women's Real Estate Association.

"What happened with Chase?" a questioner asked.

Carey, who must have known it was coming, didn't let his face betray too much expression. Putting his best foot forward, he said the city lost the financial giant for two reasons: space and money.

"The state of New Jersey put $100 million into it, with their whole incentive package, and we just could not compete. And we don't have ten or twenty acres where we can put up a new building or group of buildings..." Carey said.

"The bottom line is we were out-bid by a huge amount. We weren't even close. And Chase decided to take the money and run."

In his prepared remarks, Carey happily gave Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's administration full credit for the birth of Silicon Alley, the rebirth of Time Square and the resurrection of Harlem. But the New York real estate audience would not be converted -- not when Chase was at that very moment boarding a slow boat to Jersey City -- and after Carey's prepared remarks, Chase's heretical defection was the focus of the brief question-and-answer period. The luncheon, which drew almost 100 YM/WREA members and their guests, was held at the University Club on West 54th Street.

"Today, the bright, lively signs of Time Square symbolize the energy, as well as the significance, of our global economy and the information age," Carey said after the courtesies. "Time Square is now one of the hottest addresses in the world, with Reuters headquarters now at Three Time Square, Conde Nast at Four Time Square and Ernst and Young at Five Time Square.

"There will be more than 6,000 new Ernst and Young employees moving to that location over the next two years, in addition to the more than 4,000 current Ernst and Young Employees."

Other new Time Square projects include Loews' Cinema, Madame Tussaud's, the Duke theatre, which will be non-profit, and AMC's new 25-screen theater.

He added that the 42nd Street Development Project has resulted in 35,000 new permanent jobs in New York City, and an additional $2 billion of private investment.

Uptown, he promised, would soon see similar vitality.

"Just as we have revitalized 42nd Street. Harlem is also undergoing remarkable transformation," Carey said.

Among the projects he cited are the East 125th Street Pathmark, which opened in April 1999. The 55,000-square-foot supermarket created 300 new jobs, he said, and has become the Pathmark chain's highest grossing store.

The administration is also excited, he said, about Harlem USA, a 275,000-square-foot retail and entertainment complex that will feature Old Navy, Disney, HMV Records, Modell's and, as the piece de resistance, a rune-screen multiplex bearing the Magic Johnson moniker.

The project, Carey predicted, would create 500 permanent jobs and 200 construction jobs.

"One of the best and most successful of examples of public-private partnerships, and one that holds many lessons, is the Lower Manhattan Plan and the emergence of Silicon Alley," Carey said.

When much of the downtown financial scene bolted for the 'burbs, the mayor decided to remake the area as a 24-hour commercial and residential neighborhood, Carey said. The Lower Manhattan Plan provided property tax abatements, commercial rent tax reductions and emergency benefits for office and retail tenants with leases commencing between 1995 and 2001. It encouraged the development of residential units in an area that was traditionally a nine-to-five business district.

"At the same time, a high-tech revolution was taking place in the city with the dawn of the Internet," Carey said. "Smart entrepreneurs were seizing this new technological medium as the next tool for business opportunities in New York City and around the world.

"One building owner, Bill Rudin, saw the value of using the Lower Manhattan Plan to convert one of his buildings into a hub for these high-tech companies. The result was the Information Technology Center at 55 Broad Street, which has served as an anchor for the growth of Silicon Alley in lower Manhattan, as well as the development of 'smart buildings' worldwide."

Industries that did not even exist five years ago, he pointed out, seem to be driving the new economy.