Daily News from New York, New York • 137

usmess DAILY NEWS Sunday, One reason may be that the special zoning designation uptown already is in jeopardy. The Real Estate Board of New York, a real estate industry trade group, has filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court to have the special designation overturned. The suit maintains that the new zoning amounts to the illegal confiscation of property and that the designation is unnecesary because there is no shortage of manufacturing space in Manhattan. Harry Schwartz, executive director of the three-year-old Garment Industry Development a city-financed agency set up to help the Chinatown garment business, says that since that neighborhood has become so desirable, there is a real fear that many of those production I ENTER I By RICKI FULMAN ftTIOH Daily NewsStaffWrtter CT GARMENT PRESERVE DlSTRI Designation include avent 42nd Street ast year, when European designers created an international sensation by chopping ioes not je properties. Li PORT inXJTY SUSTBttatNAL rhemlines and reviving the miniskirt, local 40th Street I Bmertuey 37th Street I assays.

nsssss 94th Street 1 1 illi New York City apparel IN I Igt II Industry Job figures are I "If-jj annual averages. 1 fvf 1 5S7 1 i jobs will be lost "Most landlords are giving only short leases now and increasing rents to the point where factory owners will not be able to afford to stay there," says. Last year, the city did manage to help five factory owners buy their loft space at 424 Broadway, at $75 a square foot a move that preserved 300 jobs. But Schwartz said it was unlikely that they would be able to repeat the process uptown because current asking prices of $100 a square foot were too high. Instead, financial incentives have been developed to induce manufacturers to relocate to cheaper space in the outer boroughs.

Offered by the city Financial Services these incentives include financial aid of up to $110,000 for moving expenses, renovation grants and low-cost loans for qualified buyers. The agency says that since the program's inception in 1984, the city has awarded relocation grants totaling $7.9 million to 141 apparel and apparel-related manufacturers, ostensibly saving 5,540 jobs. To reduce operating costs, an energy-reduction program was set up that lowers a company's energy bills by 30 for 12 years. In addition, the city's Office of Business Development has established a real estate space bank to help manufacturers secure new quarters. Commissioner Gary Kesner says every manufacturing job saved or created is worth $1,900 in city revenues and that the city had designed other projects to aid the apparel industry.

These include courses at Fashion Institute of Technology for production workers to teach them management skills and new technology, ultimately to increase productivity and make the industry more competitive; free energy audits and security surveys for manufacturers to maximize efficiency; and information on government contracts apparel manufacturers can bid on. Whether all these efforts will save an ailing industry from total collapse remains to be seen. City College's Waldinger, for example, suggests that separating manufacturing from design and showroom operations will further weaken the industry, since its numerous components function best when in close proximity. The Apparel Manufacturers Greenspan concedes "it's best if the contractor and the designer are next door to each other. But" he adds, "moving some of the factories out of Manhattan will help save the industry in New York.

That's good, even if the circumstances aren't ideaL" JIM WlUJaV DAILY NEWS ciations has been lobbying Congress to pass new legislation that would limit imports to a growth rate of 1 a year, the city's efforts have stopped many manufacturers from closing their doors, and a number of them even have grown. At the same time, there are indications that the job decline may be leveling off here. Samuel Ehrenhalt, regional commissioner of the federal Bureau of Labor Stastics, says that in the agre-gate, the industry has not lost any jobs in 1987. Cory Greenspan, assistant executive director of the Federation of Apparel Manufacturers, says, "So much attrition has already taken place, the firms that are left show every promise of staying in business. Imports can grab just so much of the market and stricter quotas on imports plus a weakening dollar have made retailers more interested in doing business here." Enticing retailers to buy American certainly would boost the chances of a sustained recovery for New York manufacturers.

On that front there has been progress. Both retailers and wholesalers recognize that a fast turnaround can be achieved better at home. Last year, the New York-based Liz Claiborne Inc. one of the giants of the women's sportswear manufacturers, which had been designing here and manufacturing overseas opened a factory in Chinatown to produce items faster and gain quality control. And in August the nation's No.

1 women's apparel retailer, The Limited Inc. which imported half its merchandise in 1986 held a trade fair at its Columbus, Ohio headquarters for some 550 U.S. manufacturers. "We have been growing so quickly, we need new sources, and we have learned that it's to our advantage to source near the point of distribution," explains Al Deitzel, the company's vice president for financial relations. Still, spiraling rents continue to threaten most of the Manhattan manufacturers, particularly in Chinatown, which now is the city's main production center for the important spot market for fast reorders and hot new styles.

The city has no plans to provide zoning relief for Chinatown, even though there now are 500 factories that employ 20,000 unionized workers. to slow conver-space. And the elp skills and im- project a bleak hey admire the 00 late. manufacturers swung into action. In two months, they had knocked off copies of the new short skirts and had them in stores.

The radical fashion change didn't just put women's legs on view again; it infused new life into the city's ailing garment industry. Most of those first minis were made here. "That's what the New York apparel industry excels at," says Eli Elias, president of the Federation of Apparel Manufacturers. "We can jump on any new style as fast as you can wink." In fact, the New York garment industry's ability to whip up reorders or hot new styles on short notice is one of the keys to the survival of a frayed business whose future is at a crossroads. Once among the grande dames of the New York economy, the industry has been declining steadily for a quarter century.

Back in 1960, the rag trade was the city's No. 2 employer, providing 267,000 jobs. Today, it ranks eighth with just 101,000 jobs. Although the decline in jobs here is showing signs of slowing, the causes of the decline remain problematic. Industry leaders blame a continued rise of imports and the price of doing business in Manhattan, especially the escalating cost of factory' space.

There are 5,059 apparel factories in the city, 28 fewer than a decade ago. The Garment District historically, the area between Sixth and Ninth avenues from 41st St. to 34th St is shrinking, building by building, block by block. Real estate pressures, especially the conversion of factory space for the more profitable office market, already have forced many manufac- turers to relocate their factories to the outer boroughs and New Jersey. Analysts say that in the future, the Garment District mainly be a site of design and showroom operations.

Nevertheless, a battle is being waged to preserve the manufacturing space that remains. Last March, the city gave special zoning to a core "-i rfv 14 'A-lV "yi iff' ll nr if Hi tf -fqir i Ifslte ull. 1 1 IS iiiitiiinMm iiiiiHiifi 1 iiiniiiT- in iTnnniiiimrhiiii icating are posi- tiave been done were lost" says the Amalgamat- Jnion. section of the Garment District sions of factory space to office city also has spent millions to ers relocate, upgrade employe prove technology. But many industry observers future, arguing that much as city's efforts, they are too little i "The zoning and help in-relc tive actions, but they should 1 years ago, before so many jobs Jacob Sheinkman, president xxf ed Clothing Textile Workers 1 Says Roger Waldinger, an as: of sociology at City College whe industry, "The main pressures ternal environment So relocate stop-gap measures and not a wa the root problems." Among those problems is the tense competition from imports that if they continue to grow at of 15 a year, there will be virfr industry here by the year 2000.

While a coalition of industry distant professor has studied the me from the ex- grants are just of dealing with ever-present in-. Observers note I I 1 1 1 1 I I jheir current rate aally no garment 1960 1S65 1870 1975 1980 1885 1886 1987 Sowm: Bureau of Ubor Statistics unions and asso- THE STUFF DRESSES are made from racks of cloth roll through Garment District traffiC- TOM MONASTER DAILY NEWS JIM WrltUV DAILY NEWS ifalillliBMiBll ill 010 1'jomes over iods Fimnnis sii hot tones M3 The work is back-breaking, and now, it's growing scarce High rents drive out Garment District companies By JOHN HENRY llntema- in NYC. -s in the 1 are ei- 'i jpera- By RICKI FULMAN 00k at these hands," demands Vincenzo fTerrasi, proudly dis Daily News Staff Writer I Jit 'hen his rent jumped from $3 to $8 a square foot Peter Sax, pres There are 70,000 members of the tional Ladies Garment Workers Union The majority of the garment worke city are immigrants. 1 Most of the city's garment workers ther Asian or Hispanic. 80 of the city's sewing machine a tors are women.

The median age of workers in the ment industry is 45. Garment workers remain at their jc to four years. They are paid by the piece, eaminj average $7.50 an hour for a 35-h SOW ident of a firm that has manufac 1 ibs three I on r. week. xttlLGWU "A 4 MffJM Manhattan Garment District for the outer boroughs is much more than a business decision.

"There's an emotional thing about leaving Manhattan," says Blauner, who IVz years ago bought the buildings for $5.2 million and poured another $3 million into renovations. "But once people do come up here they wonder why they waited so long." Indeed, the tenants who have made the move to these complexes are disovering there is a business life outside of Manhattan and that it often includes unexpected advantages. Watching his sewing machine operators deftly piecing together sportswear designs in his Bronx loft, Hal Selbee, owner of Selbee Designs, recalls that in Manhattan "we had no place to park our trucks. Our building had only a couple of freight elevators and sometimes we waited as long as two hours to use them. tyr Were, there is plenty of parking, Ife-fl several freight elevators, plus a JLL illoading platform, making it ideal for shipping." The lower rent he says, has enabled him to expand his operation from 4,000 to 13,000 square feet and to increase his staff from 40 to 90.

While manufacturers who have moved to both complexes say there is plenty of local labor, finding office staff and skilled labor Can be more problematic because people with that experience usually opt to work in Manhattan. And running a company with locations in two boroughs means a lot of running back and forth. "It was easier to do it when both showroom and factory were in Manhattan," says Sax. "Now, I'm using more messengers and spending a few days at each busy year-round, recalls the petite Chinese-born Horn. -But with sales lagging because of import competition, the company has been forced periodically to lay off workers, she says.

As a result Horn, a sewing-machine operator grossing about $400 a week, has collected unemployment insurance for about 10 weeks of the last year. For now, though, some work is better than none. "I enjoy it, it's all that I know," says the 53-year-old resident of Jackson Heights, Queens. Horn's plight is all too familiar to Sylvia Morales. During the past year and a half, she and other workers at a Manhattan sportswear factory have been taking turns on the unemployment rolls, with each working nine, months in every 12.

"I'm afraid the place is closing," Morales says. "We all worry about it" With a sample-making job grossing $359 a week, Morales, who is in her mid-40s, calls herself "part of the middle class." Indeed, she and her husband, a senior dietetic aide in a city hospital, moved last winter from controlled Brooklyn quarters to their own three-bedroom home in Staten Island. "I was one of the lucky ones who could push myself up," says the Puerto Rican native who started "at the bottom" of the New York garment trade as a thread cutter and worked herself up to one of apparel-making's better jobs. Morales, too, has trouble envisioning herself in another job. "After 25-30 years of the same work, you cannot do anything else," she insists.

In the event she does have to look for work elsewhere in the garment industry, Morales might find slim pickings, if the experience of 63-year-old Iris Henry of Bushwick, Brooklyn, is any indication. Henry since coming here 30 years ago has -ield a succession of garment- making jobs the last as a $296-a-week sample maker. That job, which she held for a year while filling in for some-one on leave, ended last April. Though Henry says the union "is looking very hard" to find her work, not one employer has even asked to interview her. "That says to me the work (openings) are getting fewer," she says.

Few in today's garment trade would disagree. complex. Already, there are 8,000 people working for 80 apparel manufacturing companies there. In both locations, many of the firms received relocation grants from the city's Financial Services Corp. Bruce Federman, director of real estate at Industry City, says that many related businesses essential to apparel manufacturers, such as button and zipper makers, also were locating in the area.

Although 99 of the manufacturers probably will continue to rent showroom space in Manhattan near the hotels, predicts Federman, a couple have opened second showrooms in their Brooklyn quarters and are bringing out clients by limousine or minibus. Industry City, with its 19 buildings on 32 acres in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn, was built in the early 1900s for the maritime industry. Developer Morris Bailey, who purchased the complex from Harry Helmsley in 1986 at an undisclosed price, spent $4 million on renovations and now is converting two of the buildings to manufacturing condominiums, at prices ranging from $30 to $40 a square foot Rental tenants, who are offered 10-year leases, pay $4 to $5 a square foot depending on location. And at the Bronx Apparel Center, once the home of the American Bank Note owner Max Blauner says he also may convert the four-building complex into in-, dustrial condos. But right now, rent there is about $3.50 a square foot i -Blauner acknowledges that leaving the playing four hard-earned callouses on each palm.

"I work like an animal," the 36-year-old, Sicilian-born garment worker says. To support his wife and two young sons, Terrasi works two jobs. By day, he works at a sportswear factory in Long Island City, and six nights a he works at a blouse factory in Ridgewood, Queens. But as tough as that is, Terrasi says, it beats the alternative. If he didn't have the jobs which together pay him about $500 a week "I'd have to become a criminal," he says.

"What am I going to do for my family?" While Terrasi Jias yet to taste unemployment others in his local of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union have experienced it even those with jobs, such as Yook Chee Horn. The factory in Long Island City where she has worked for the last 27 years used to produce enough women's pants, shirts, jackets and blouses to keep its employes tured maternity clothes for three generations, was forced to choose between going out of business and moving his production operation out of Manhattan. 52, I wasn't ready to retire," says Sax, sitting in his airy new office at the Bronx Apparel Center, the fledgling garment manufacturing complex that now is the home of Jain-Sax Inc. He has no regrets. The move has been a blessing for his business.

"In Manhattan, we were using three floors in a vertical manufacturing operation. It's much more efficient to work horizontally, with our 42,000 square feet all on one floor," Sax says, gesturing to his cutting tables, which stretch 233 feet down the length of the loft Sax is one of hundreds of garment manufacturers who, discouraged by escalating rents in gentrifying neighborhoods, have fled Seventh Ave. for cheaper and larger quarters outside the traditional Garment District In all, there are 1,000 persons working for 15 different garment firms at the Bronx Apparel Center, which is located on Garrison Ave. in the Hunts Point section. Down on the Brooklyn waterfront an even larger garment center has sprung up at Industry City, the old Bush Terminal th every Stuart, that to come ower rent uble her jare feet iy 30.

mating to lave been aty's grant decided 's. "There business down the which nent cen-me." place rather than visiting be day." But at Industry City, Laini head of Creations by Michou, a I old textile imprinting company, to her surprise, many clients lik down to Brooklyn to visit She also described how her 1 allowed her to more than dc space from 4,500 to 13,600 sqi and thereby increase business She says she considered reli-New Jersey, but she wouldn't able to take advantage of the relocation program, so shef against it i "And am I glad I did!" she saj are so many other people in tht, who have moved here they're hall and up and down the stree makes it seem like a little gar' ter. It makes me feel right at ho- TV GARMENT WORKER hauls rack through streets of Garment Distnct -v i 1,1 tit TOM MOHSTHr DAILY NEWS.