Giuliani Holds Office Clinton Wants

W A S H I N G T O N, Feb. 13, 2001 -- President Clinton is hitting another snag in his efforts to set up shop in New York City.

Under fire for trying to move into a posh, $800,000 office in midtown Manhattan that would be underwritten by taxpayers, Clinton set his sights on a far cheaper building in Harlem.

"I have decided to locate my office in this building if we canwork it out," Clinton said today as he emerged from 55 West 125th St. to a cheering crowd of supporters. "We're looking at it."

But New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who ran against Clinton's wife for the Senate before dropping out of the race, may have the final say.

Looking for an Offer ‘We Can't Refuse’

Since December, a city agency that handles foster care for "at-risk children" has held the lease on the 17,303-square-foot 14th-floor office that Clinton wants.

Giuliani said today he's willing to negotiate, but wants to make sure Clinton makes it worth the city's while to move the Administration for Child Services.

"We're certainly willing to listen to an offer. Maybe they can make us an offer we can't refuse," Giuliani said.

Giuliani insisted his position was strictly "business, not personal." If the landlord could guarantee equivalent or better space in the building for his agency, the mayor said, then the city might be willing to make room for Clinton.

"I think it would be a very good thing for the former president to have office space in New York," Giuliani said. "I think it would be a particularly good thing to have it in Harlem, we would like to accommodate that interest, but we can't be unmindful of the interests of the children either."

Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel said earlier the agency was given word Monday by the landlord that Clinton was interested in the space.

Setting Up Shop in Empowerment Zone

Despite the snafu, Clinton remained optimistic.

"I feel wonderful about it and I'm very, very grateful. I hope we can work the lease out and all the details," Clinton said. "I feel confident we can, and I'm looking forward to it."

Clinton's move to West 125th Street would situate him within an "empowerment zone" established under his administration.

Real estate sources in the area said the recently renovated structure is the only building within the empowerment zone that could reasonably meet Clinton's needs.

Talking about her husband's plans to set up an office in Harlem, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters on Capitol Hill today, "I'm excited about it."

"It would be a great place for him to have an office to demonstrate what federal investment in underserved communities can lead to," she said.

On Monday, Harlem congressman Charles Rangel said he had urged the former president to move into the "beautiful, state-of-the-art" building and welcomes him into the community.

"If he's going to do good," the New York Democrat said, "he should do it in a place where he is wanted."

A Lot Cheaper Than Midtown

Office space in Harlem costs on average about a third of what taxpayers would have spent on what Clinton had been looking at in Carnegie Hall Tower. A local real estate developer said the cost is in the range of $25 to $32 per square foot. And moving into an empowerment zone, intended to boost investment in flagging communities, entitles Clinton to a range of special tax breaks.

As recently as this weekend, Clinton spokeswoman Julia Payne maintained negotiations were "ongoing" with the General Services Administration over plans to sign a lease at the ritzy tower on West 57th Street despite objections from Republicans in Congress.

But a source close to Clinton said the former president began looking into Harlem a week ago.

The New York Post reported last week that negotiations over the Carnegie lease collapsed at a meeting Friday between GSA and Clinton representatives, but aides to both Clinton and Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., said they were unaware of any meeting on Friday related to the lease.

The lease for the entire 56th floor of the Carnegie Hall Tower was expected to cost roughly $800,000 annually, including some costs for "build-out" or modifications to the space.

After news stories pointed out that, at that rate, Clinton's office would have been more costly than all the offices of other former presidents combined, Clinton said his library foundation would chip in $300,000, reducing the annual cost to the government to about half a million dollars.

"I'm not going to let the taxpayers get gigged on this, but I mean this is New York," he said last week.

ABCNEWS' Jackie Judd and Angela Fernandez contributed to this report.