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- BUSINESS, Page 69Not Mad About ManhattanExxon flees New York prices
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- At last count, New York City served as the headquarters for 48
- of the FORTUNE 500 corporations, more than any other city in the
- U.S. But 20 years ago, 138 of the largest industrial corporations
- called the Big Apple home. Last week Exxon said it will join the
- exodus by moving its corporate base to Irving, Texas, a suburb of
- Dallas. The move will involve only 300 employees, since the company
- has already dispersed its corporate staff to other sites around the
- U.S. Even so, and even though RJR Nabisco will move its
- headquarters from Atlanta to New York City next year, the departure
- of the former Standard Oil of New Jersey was a blow to Big Apple
- boosters.
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- Exxon will move into a campus-like complex to be constructed
- in the Las Colinas development park. The company probably had the
- same money-saving concerns that inspired its former Manhattan
- neighbor J.C. Penney to move last year to Plano, another Dallas
- suburb. The past decade's oil bust has made Texas a good place to
- find cheap office space. J.C. Penney expects to save some $60
- million annually by relocating. In Las Colinas Exxon should be able
- to rent office space for around $15 per sq. ft., in contrast to
- nearly $50 in midtown Manhattan. Employees will enjoy a markedly
- lower cost of living. The median price for a home in the Dallas
- area is about $94,700; it is $185,500 in the New York metropolitan
- region.
- Gotham is not suffering alone. A chill wind rustled through
- Chicago this year when Sears decided to sell its landmark 110-story
- tower and move to new headquarters in suburban Hoffman Estates,
- Ill. Will the last company to leave the big city please turn out
- the lights?