THE HAMPTON SHEET: This Issue: Features

At the epicenter of rebuilding Lower Manhattan in the aftermath of 9/11 is Charles Gargano, Chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation and now head of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Gargano has come light years from the tiny town of Sant Angelo dei Lombardi, Italy, where he was born. After a career as an engineer and partner at J.D. Posillico Engineering and Construction, a company he helped parlay into one of Long Island’s largest heavy construction firms, he kicked off his public service in 1981, when he was named Deputy Administrator of the Federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration by President Reagan. In 1988 he was appointed Ambassador to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Now, as a right hand to Governor George Pataki and a key player in the future of Lower Manhattan, Chairman Gargano took The Sheet behind the scenes of bigtime deal-making to tell us exactly what he does, his take on 9/11 and terrorism, how he copes, and where he goes to escape from the pressure-cooker.

Hampton Sheet: Many people don’t know exactly what your job entails as Chairman of Empire State Development Corporation, Vice-Chairman of the Port Authority and now as a leader of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.
Charles Gargano: Empire State Development Corporation is the economic arm of the state of New York and its government. The agency has the responsibility to create jobs by helping the business community—attracting companies to come to New York, retaining companies when they threaten to leave. This is our mission. We also have many programs to help areas that need economic revitalization, such as 42nd Street.

HS: What’s your typical day like?
CG: Every week there are board meetings that I chair—so that takes up a lot of my time. We take legal action on the approval of projects, expenditures and funds, et cetera. In addition, I have meetings throughout the day with members of the business community or my staff. So it’s a very hectic schedule that generally starts at 8:30 a.m. and goes until 8 p.m.

HS: Where were you the morning of 9/11, and how did it change your life and job priorities?
CG: Well, it certainly changed all our lives because of the fear that it put into us in the aftermath. I was leaving my apartment when I got a call that a plane had struck one of the Towers, and by the time I arrived at my office 15 minutes later the second plane had struck the South Tower. When the first plane hit, I thought it was just an accident. But obviously after the second hit, we knew it was terrorism. The Governor came into his office in New York, right above mine, and we gathered there about 10:30, trying to check on people serving at the World Trade Center, trying to find out if they’d reached safety or not. Later that afternoon we met with the Mayor and Governor, who spoke to the President about what had happened and the possibility of additional attacks. At the same time we had to respond to businesses that were affected, and on September 13 we opened an emergency business center in the city.

"These were innocent people going to work, and those cowards just took their lives. We will honor the victims by rebuilding a magnificent memorial park and monument for them on the 16-acre site."

Dozens of staff people helped the business community to keep them going with loans or grants for small retail shops in Lower Manhattan, and then helped large corporations—to keep them in Lower Manhattan, or finding space for them throughout the city. We worked with the Real Estate Board of New York to keep companies here, trying to minimize the loss of jobs—which could have totaled more than 300,000 just in Lower Manhattan. Twelve million square feet of space were damaged, with an additional $15 million of collateral damage. The result was we were able to get most businesses back in their offices and shops downtown.

HS: Is the incentive to get big companies to return downtown working?
CG: It is working. Many large corporations like American Express and Merrill Lynch are back in their Lower Manhattan offices now that their damaged buildings are repaired. We’ve offered nearly $400 million for companies to stay in Lower Manhattan, keeping thousands of jobs there. We want to help them through this very difficult and costly period. We have different programs for different sized-companies. For the larger corporations we offered financial assistance per job if they commit to keep those jobs in Manhattan for a minimum of seven years. So all these programs were put into effect as quickly as possible—we had to move very fast.