Daily News from New York, New York • 51

ALCOA AMERKAM'" BOEING 5 DISNEY GENERAL KWLETT IBM MERCK MICROSOFT WAL-MART OTSS MRS 88 cents 89 cents 55 cents 45 cents $1.03 49 cents $1.22 68 cents 26 cents 63 cents $34.18 $51.84 $41.75 $24 $49.68 $23.79 $99.23 $47.60 $27.65 $53.85 taste Mnoiito feld rag 7 IA i i Time Warner Center adds jobs, retail boom to area By LORE CROGHAN DAILY NEWS BUSINESS WRITER Time Warner Center Columbus Circle's lavish new 750-foot twin-towered mega-project doesn't officially open until Thursday, but complaints are already flooding into City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's office. The new Tune Warner Center at Columbus Circle is being called the jewel of the neighborhood and is expected to spur residential development, raise apartment values and ignite an upgrade in the area's office environment heavily on renovations, said hotel-industry analyst Sean Hennessey of PricewaterhouseCoo-pers. They're putting plasma-screen TVs in guest rooms and building spa facilities. Immediate neighbor Trump International Hotel and Tower laid out $10 million for a makeover and lost top sales exec Kristin Ruble, who went to the Mandarin. The mall in Time Warner Center's base which houses more than 50 upscale shops and ultra-chic restaurants will draw sexier retailers to surrounding streets.

The most dramatic changes are expected on W. 57th Street, until re- They're about the snarled traffic on W. 60th St. outside the entrance to the Mandarin Oriental, the project's glamorous hotel. Taxis and limos including a stretch Rolls Royce Silver Spur are double-parking.

While Brewer's pressing for more active police enforcement, she's quick to see the positive impact of the huge new development overlooking Columbus Circle. The hotel has hired more than 300 people, most of them from the community or elsewhere in the city. "It's too tall, and doesn't provide affordable housing but we want jobs for New Yorkers, and it is provid- fJCKj 1 imuu-ci uppebzI I ft -J tu i i 1 ftr I i Central Park lrH 'lh w-59'- ACentral -Park I ing them," she said. Residents and businesses are already starting to feel the impact of Time Warner Center. Developer Stephen Ross' $1.75 billion mega-project's got the most expensive hotel suite, costliest condo apart "It's too tall, and doesn't provide affordable housing but we want jobs for New Yorkers, and it is providing them." Councilwoman GALE BREWER cently overrun by theme restaurants.

Already, trendy Nobu is heading to 40 W. 57th. Asking rents for area storefronts have doubled to $300 per square foot in the last two years. Joe Moin-ian, who owns office and retail building 1775 Broadway, expects they'll hit A A A tin ment, highest-priced sushi restaurant, and the classiest of Class A offices. "It's the crown jewel of the neighborhood," said John Avion, whose investment group has been holding onto a vacant lot a couple blocks away, and watching Time Warner Center's development with great interest.

The 2.8 million-square-foot complex will transform the area over the next few years. It will hasten residential development and raise apartment values all the way to 11th Avenue, and spur an upgrade of the neighborhood's office stock, landlords said. The arrival of the prestigious Mandarin brand is driving hotels on neighboring Central $500 per square foot in time and is deliberately keeping space empty until after the center opens. The stores inside Time Warner Center expect to draw hordes of tourists, though locals have traditionally avoided vertical malls. "New Yorkers are about cheek-by-jowl we like to shop on the street," said retail broker Annette Healey of CB Richard Ellis.

Massive mixed-use developments like this are found in cities like Hong Kong, but are an untried phenomenon here. "It's such a prominent location and such exciting architecture that maybe the rules will be broken," said architect Dan Kaplan of Fox Fowle. Get Daily Hews help on tax questions With the tax season upon us, the Daily News is ready to help! Send us your tax-related questions via E-mail at (taxhelpedit.nydailynews.com), or by fax at (212) 643-7826, and we'll try to get you an answer courtesy of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. And this year, once again, we'll sponsor the Daily News Tax Panel a few weeks before the April 15 deadline, hosting a group of CPAs to take your calls. Park South and beyond to spend Or maybe not..