Durst's $650m bond application nears final approval.

A $650M Liberty Bonds application by Bank of America and the Durst Organization for their $1 billion midtown office tower has made it through the second round of the approval process.

The board of New York's Industrial Development Agency last week confirmed the project, One Bryant Park, had received "final inducement approval" for $650 million in Liberty Bond financing for the project following a preliminary approval by the Board in September 2003.

An IDA spokesman said it was now likely the bond application would be granted full approval "in the not too distant future."

"This is an important step for the project to proceed and we are very confident the board will authorize this transaction, hopefully, in the not too distant future," said IDA spokesman, Michael Sherman.

Final approval will mean the bank and developer will be able to begin selling the bonds to raise the cash to help finance the building of their 2.1 million s/f, 57-story office building.

Sherman explained the approval process for the bond application had been set in three stages because of the size and complexity of the project.

"Because this deal is large and complicated, we broke it up into three parts--the first part was more of preliminary stage to introduce the transaction to the board."

The Liberty Bond approval came as the IDA announced its board had approved tax assistance for Bank of America and the Durst Organization to build their Times Square skyscraper, that will become headquarters to the bank's investment banking, trading and asset management divisions.

The Bank of America was approved to receive up to $38.5 million in sales and real estate tax benefits and $3.5 million in energy benefits over 25 years.

In return, BOA has agreed to occupy about 1.1 million s/f in the office tower to be built by One Bryant Park LLC, a joint venture of the Bank and the Durst Organization. BOA plans to consolidate the majority of its 2,995 employees from five locations in Manhattan in the new building in 2008, and projects the creation of more than 2,800 jobs over the term of the deal.

IDA Chairman Andrew Alper said, "The Bank of America/Durst project will result in a new Class A office tower that will extend the Times Square revitalization further west and allow Bank of America to consolidate the majority of its New York City operations and accommodate its future growth.

"The Bank, which currently has nearly 3,000 New York City employees, expects to grow to more than 5,800 employees in the City in the next 25 years. This project will provide a tremendous return to the City, in terms of both jobs and revenue, which far outweighs the costs of the benefits."