Contact: Colleen Roche (212) 788-2958 or Deirdra L. Picou (212) 788-2971
“It is a pleasure to join all of you for your monthly luncheon,” Mayor Giuliani said. “I am happy to have this opportunity to speak to our City’s top young real estate professionals. All of us are here today for the same reason. Because we care passionately about New York City. We are concerned about, and have a stake in the future of this town.”
Mayor Giuliani said, “I am pleased to report that New York City is back. There is a sense of optimism in the neighborhoods of New York City that we haven’t seen in some time. Whether it’s Times Square or Wall Street, or Fordham Road, or Myrtle Avenue, or Flushing Avenue, or Bay Street, wherever you go in New York City -- now, instead of seeing stores closing you see a lot of stores opening.”
“Instead of seeing businesses leaving, we are not only retaining businesses, we’re getting new businesses coming to the City and new private sector capital investment” the Mayor continued. “I think that’s quite a change from three years ago when many people believed that the problems of New York City were intractable, and that there was nothing that could be done.”
Mayor Giuliani said, “In the last two and a half years, we’ve reduced crime by more than in any comparable time in the history of the City. Parks and streets are cleaner and safer, and the City is more orderly and law abiding. New York City has reduced its welfare roles by more than 120,000 people in the last two years, largely from getting people off welfare and into work.”
“Today our business community understands that the City of New York is an active partner in economic progress,” said Mayor Giuliani. “We reduced the hotel occupancy tax, and eliminated the commercial rent tax in four-fifths of the City, and we used our economic development program to retain major employers. We stopped the flow of jobs leaving the City of New York. We’ve signed seventeen retention agreements with major employers, retaining more than 45,000 jobs, and we’ve actually seen the first private sector job growth in the City since the late 1980’s with more than 85,000 new jobs.”
Mayor Giuliani said, “And you’re going to see two new buildings going up. One is the Mercantile Exchange, that will keep those exchanges in New York City well into the future. And the second is the Holocaust Museum. That is a project that was stalled and now is on track. Also, capital investments are being made throughout our City now by major companies like Dow Jones, and ITT, which are establishing a new network in New York City.”
“The new reality is that four new hotels are being built,” said the Mayor. “The Mansfield just opened within the last couple of months, and there is also the Soho Mercer, The Hudson Center Hotel, and 180 Maiden Lane. They are under construction right now. These are all signs that the City is now a city of growth rather than a city of decline.” “In 1994 we unveiled the Lower Manhattan Plan, a full-scale packaged aimed at revitalizing and restoring the Historic Wall Street area,” said the Mayor. “Through tax reforms, zoning changes and transportation initiatives, we are working to transform an area that is critical to the economic health of our City into a safe and attractive 24-hour mixed use community.”
YM/WREA is the second largest association of real estate professionals in New York City, comprising over 400 members. Its members include owners, both entrepreneurial and institutional, brokers, lenders and other people in various facets of the real estate industry.