Metropolitan Life Insurance may be giving up on Long Island City – its home for the past five years – for the allure of Manhattan despite its skyhigh rates.
The insurer, which occupies 404,000 square feet in Queens, is in talks to lease a large block of space at 1095 Sixth Ave., the office tower that Equity Office Property is renovating across from Bryant Park, according to a report in today’s Crain’s New York Business.
“Obviously, we are very concerned,” a Long Island City businessman said. “But I’m hoping . . . they will only relocate their front office workers.”
MetLife declined to comment.
MetLife’s decision to move almost 1,000 workers to Queens in 2001 was hailed as a move that would help boost the boroughs. But that didn’t sit well with many workers, in part because a predicted revitalization of the area never occurred.