The deal between Morgan Stanley and ChevronTexaco for the 725,000-sf building at 2000 Westchester Ave., which sits on 107 acres near the Harrison/White Plains border, still must be finalized.
Financial details of the proposed transaction were not released. A bidding process was held for interested parties on the property. Real estate sources said that Reckson Realty Associates was one of the companies that had entered the fray for the asset, which was built in 1977.
Officials with Morgan Stanley say that the company will retain its global headquarters at 1585 Broadway and expects that a vast majority of its 14,000 employees will remain in the city. Morgan Stanley owns the 1.4 million-sf 1585 Broadway building. The proposed acquisition of 2000 Westchester Ave., is part of the company's strategy to address its space needs and business continuity requirements in the wake of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, company officials say. Morgan Stanley was the largest tenant in the World Trade Center, and lost nearly 1.2 million sf of office space when the trade center was destroyed. Since Sept. 11, the financial services firm has secured new office space in three buildings in Manhattan, and it will continue to lease significant additional space at 750 Seventh Ave., 1633 Broadway, Pierrepont Plaza in Brooklyn, and in several retail branch locations throughout the city, Morgan officials add.
Upon closing, the company plans to undertake significant renovations and technology upgrades at the 2000 Westchester Ave., property before it can relocate any businesses or employees there.
The availability of 2000 Westchester Ave., was necessitated by the merger of Chevron and Texaco last year. The deal closed in October 2001 and around that time ChevronTexaco hired Insignia/ESG to sell the property.
John R. McCarthy, a principal of McCarthy O'Callaghan Company, Inc. of White Plains and Stamford, is representing Morgan Stanley in the deal. McCarthy had no comment on the news of the preliminary agreement. Officials with Insignia/ESG's New York City and Westchester/Connecticut division are representing Texaco-Chevron in the sale of the property. Insignia/ESG representatives also offered no comment on the pending deal.
The 2000 Westchester Ave. building at one time was home to approximately 2,000 Texaco workers. At the time of the merger last year, 800 employees were left. Today, there are approximately 100 ChevronTexaco workers at the property. Eventually, the remaining personnel will either relocate to the company's headquarters in San Francisco or leave the oil concern. An unspecified number of ChevronTexaco workers in the company's Fuel Marine Marketing and Aviation Fuel businesses will remain in the Westchester area at a site or sites to be determined, according to Chris Gidez, a company spokesman.
Atlas Air, an air cargo company, is the lone tenant at the 2000 Westchester Ave., property and occupies approximately 120,000 sf of space there. The firm relocated to the building from Golden, Colorado several years ago.
Salvatore Carrera, director of Westchester County's Office of Economic Development, says that the deal "affirms the economic condition of Westchester County that a firm of Morgan Stanley's magnitude would choose this site." He adds that the deal has not been signed and officials representing Morgan Stanley have called his office to discuss possible incentives.
Real estate brokers in the area say that while the preliminary deal is great news for Westchester, they cautioned that the transaction has yet to close. Some years back, Morgan Stanley had also made overtures to establish a major office location in the northern suburbs. In fact, the firm went so far as to acquire a parcel in downtown Stamford, CT., but eventually abandoned that project.
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John Jordan
John Jordan is a veteran journalist with 36 years of print and digital media experience.
