The New York Mercantile Exchange announced last week that its board of directors voted to remain in New York City after several years of speculation that the exchange would move its headquarters to New Jersey.
The announcement came Thursday during a news conference attended by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo and Mayor David N. Dinkins. In a joint release, the governor and the mayor said the exchange is staying in the city, but would move from the World Trade Center in the Wall Street financial district to a "state-of-the-art headquarters" in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan.
The exchange will lease its new headquarters from Shearson Lehman Inc.
The mercantile exchange is the largest of the city's five commodity exchanges, employing more than 3,400 people. It trades options and futures on a range of commodities, including oil and gasoline. City officials say the exchange generates about $75 million a year in city and state taxes.
The mercantile exchange, which like the city's other four commodity exchanges had considered a move out of Manhattan to lower costs, announced last year it was contemplating relocating to New Jersey. The Garden State had offered a series of financial incentives that would help the exchange reduce costs associated with doing business in New York City, such as high rents and high taxes.
City and New York State officials said during the news conference they recently countered with their own incentive package that persuaded the mercantile exchange to remain in Manhattan. Details on the package are not available. City officials said in a statement that the incentive package will be released after the exchange finishes negotiations on its lease with Shearson Lehman.
