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March 18, 2008
Former Bear Stearns’ Offices Seen Staying in Brooklyn
Beleagured Company Was an Original Tenant of Metrotech Development
El Diario, HeartShare Sign New Leases at the Downtown Complex
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
By Raanan Geberer
By now, everyone who follows the news on a regular basis knows that the huge investment bank Bear Stearns was sold to JPMorgan Chase for a mere $2 a share, in a deal brokered by the Federal Reserve Bank.
What they may not know, however, is that the company has a big presence in Downtown Brooklyn, with 1,500 employees from various “back office” departments at One MetroTech. The gray-brick highrise has the Bear Stearns logo on its lobby windows — and ironically is a stone’s throw from JPMorgan Chase’s own MetroTech buildings.
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Loren Riegelhaupt, a spokesman for Forest City Ratner, which owns MetroTech, and a Bear Stearns spokeswoman both said it was “too soon to know” about the company’s continued presence at MetroTech.However, a legal analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity, says Bear Stearns’ new parent company must assume the responsibility to finish the lease at the Brooklyn location.
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In the meantime, Forest City Ratner Monday announced that El Diario La Presna, the oldest Spanish-language newspaper in America, has signed a lease for office space at One MetroTech. El Diario is relocating its headquarters from SoHo to Brooklyn. The company, which also provides online news, is leasing 23,400 square feet on the 18th floor.Bruce Ratner, chairman and CEO of Forest City Ratner said, “We are very pleased that El Diario, one of New York’s great, venerable newspapers has chosen Downtown Brooklyn and MetroTech Center for the location of its new headquarters.”
NoLandGrab: Ironically, El Diario is one of two daily papers (the other being The NY Sun) that has taken any editorial position critical of Forest City Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project.
More on the state of real estate in the fallout of the Bear Stearns deal at Bloomberg.com.
Posted by lumi at March 18, 2008 4:30 AM