Thomas OBrien, the president of Atlantic Bank of New York, watched the World Trade Centers twin towers collapse from the banks headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. But most of his friends and family, as well as the general public, assumed that he and other Atlantic Bank employees had met their fate on Tower Twos top floor.
So many friends thought I was still in there, even my parents did. It was one incredibility chaotic day,Mr. OBrien said in an interview Thursday.
Atlantic Banks executive offices had been housed on the 106th floor of Tower Two for the last 18 months, and the bank was listed on a tenant roster that many media outlets published, but its lease expired four days before the Sept. 11 tragedy. While Mr. OBrien said he is thankful to be alive, he is hardly rejoicing about the banks timely move.
I lost dozens of good friends there, Mr. OBrien said. Its just impossible to feel lucky.
Mr. OBrien said $2 billion-asset Atlantic, a unit of the National Bank of Greece, had been in the process of moving out of the floor for the last several weeks after staying there during the renovation of its Midtown headquarters. No other tenants had moved into Atlantic Banks offices and the floor was, thankfully, empty at the time of the crash, he said.
Atlantic is not the only banking company to have exited the doomed towers in recent months.
ABN AMRO Inc. also mistakenly listed as a tenant moved its brokerage and investment banking unit out of the World Trade Center a few months ago, said Stanley Rhodes, president of ABN AMRO Mortgage in Ann Arbor, Mich., last week. The company, which employed 400 to 500 employees on the 35th floor of Tower Two, moved after its Dutch parent, ABN AMRO Holdings NV, bought subsidiaries of ING Barings.
Because of its proximity to Wall Street and the capital markets, the World Trade Center was an obvious location for many foreign and domestic banks. More than 20 banks, including Bank of America, Bank of Taiwan, and Fuji Bank, had offices there.
After the attacks, Atlantic Bank immediately closed its 10 New York branches, but some employees, including Mr. OBrien, did not have the option of going home, because they lived across a closed bridge, and ended up sleeping at a Midtown branch. (All of the branches, expect the one near the World Trade Center, have since re-opened).
On Thursday, after a night of sleep on a real bed, Mr. OBrien still had trouble absorbing the tragedy and how close he and his staff came to being a part of it.
I am still in a state of shock,he said. Its numbing.
Erick Berquist contributed to this article.
