The firm moved its trading operations to New Jersey, rented the entire Sheraton New York Hotel for its investment bankers and set up still other employees on four floors of space donated by Citigroup. But it was anxious to reunite its troops.
Lehman found a solution when Morgan Stanley decided to sell the 815,000-square-foot tower it had built at 745 Seventh Avenue, in Manhattan’s Times Square district. But one final real estate issue remains.
New York requires skyscrapers in the glitzy theater district to earmark 5 percent of their square footage for entertainment-related businesses like theaters, dance studios and restaurants. Unwilling to fork over precious office space, Lehman discovered another way to contribute to the city’s entertainment value. The firm picked up negotiations Morgan Stanley had started with the City Planning Council and offered to donate $5 million to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and School. There’s one hitch, however: Alvin Ailey’s headquarters is outside Times Square, so the waiver has to be approved by the City Council. A Lehman spokesman declined comment on the talks.
