Post 9/11 moves from Wall Street
Wall Street firms moved thousands of employees out of lower Manhattan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Jeremy Hobson reports that the relocations affected bottom lines -- in a good way.
Visitors sign steel beams that will be used in the construction of the National Sept. 11 Memorial at the World Trade Center. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
More on Jobs, Housing - Real Estate, Wall Street
TEXT OF STORY
Renita Jablonski: At the New York Stock Exchange this morning, a moment of silence will be observed before the opening bell as Wall Street marks the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. After that day, major Wall Street firms moved their offices away from lower Manhattan. Marketplace's Jeremy Hobson looks at impact of those moves seven years later.
Jeremy Hobson: Since 9/11, Wall Street firms have moved thousands of employees to mid-town Manhattan, Jersey City and beyond. John Boyd helps relocate Fortune 500 companies. He says the No. 1 advantage of a move away from Wall Street is the bottom line.
John Boyd: A close-in move to Jersey City would reduce operating costs substantially. And a more remote move could result in an operating cost savings in the 30 to 40 percent range.
Boyd says his modeling shows a company in Manhattan with 75 employees costs about $21 million a year to run. The same company could cut its costs in half by moving to, say, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. And Boyd says even if firms stay headquartered in New York, having a number of locations doesn't hurt.
Boyd: Companies are factoring in both man-made risks and natural disasters.
He says one downside to leaving Manhattan is that it's harder to recruit experienced financial services employees elsewhere.
In New York, I'm Jeremy Hobson for Marketplace.
Comments
Comment | Refresh
From PORTLAND, OR, 09/12/2008
Yes, and companies can realize even greater savings by relocating from Manhattan to Afganistan, or perhaps North Korea! It's myopic to consider only the cost per square foot of office space for a location. Usually the intangibles matter equally.
Post a Comment: Please be civil, brief and relevant.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments are moderated. Marketplace reserves the right to edit any comments on this site and to read them on the air if they are extra-interesting. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting.
You must be 13 or over to submit information to American Public Media. The information entered into this form will not be used to send unsolicited email and will not be sold to a third party. For more information see Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.