It’s been 10 months since anyone involved in Lower Manhattan development took seriously JPMorgan Chase’s pledge to build itself a new 40-story investment banking headquarters across from the World Trade Center site. The financial titan’s shotgun marriage with a dying Bear Stearns last winter seemed to mostly kill the deal, as Bear Stearns had its own, newer midtown skyscraper for investment bankers, and JPMorgan was apparently less than eager to spend $3 billion on a new building it didn’t need.
But ever since, both JPMorgan and the Port Authority, which owns the site, have been coy about the status of the non-binding deal, with neither party having any incentive to announce its demise. (JPMorgan said it will not build an investment banking headquarters, but has said it still intends to use the site.)
Now, while holding to the line that JPMorgan could still build, the Port Authority on Thursday opened up some $61 million in tax credits intended for the financial firm to anyone who will take them. The subsidy, $5 per square foot off the rent for 750,000 square feet of space, can go to any business that takes space anywhere at the World Trade Center site. read more »
