Daily News from New York, New York • 10

10 Sunday, December 6, 2009 DAILY NEWS NYDailyNews.com Goldman got bailout billions, lets city slide on WTC penalty Outdoor terrace 74-person capacity MURRAY ST IB lkhr If SI 1 a i jBf iM aaBSSSi lion in low-interest, triple tax-exempt Liberty Bonds which save Goldman $250 million in financing costs over 3 0 years. The bank also grabbed $159 million in discounted property tax payments, $115 million in sales and energy tax breaks and $25 million in federal cash grants, documents show. "This is a smart corporation that was able to outmaneuver, outnegotiate and outsmart city and state officials," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. The bank won its mega-benefits package after threatening to decamp to midtown or New Jersey, a move officials said would have dealt a knockout blow to a post-911 downtown. Critics termed itabluff.

"This was a bank that probably would have stayed put in the first place, but it was provided a truck-load of incentives unnecessarily in the largest corporate retention deal in the city's history," said Jonathan Bowles, director of the Center for an Urban Future. Goldman spokeswoman Andrea Raphael insisted, "It's not about the money. It's never been about the money. It's about ensuring a safe and accessible environment for our employees and the Battery Park Community." Politicians say using taxpayer dollars to subsidize a rich Wall Street firm keeps high-paying, tax-generating jobs in New York and possibly creates more. At the Nov.

29, 2005 groundbreaking, Bloomberg said Goldman "intends to add 4,000 additional jobs in the years to come." Pataki said the bank had the "expectation" of creating that number of new positions "in the next decade." Too bad it wasn't in writing. That optimistic number doesn't appear in the pact the Wall Street titan wrangled from city and state brass. It was only a "projection," two insiders say. "Try telling the landlord you 'intend' to pay the rent next month, or tell Con Ed you have the 'expectation' of paying your electric bill," said Bettina Dami-ani, director of Good Jobs New York, a watchdog group that tracks subsidies. Legally, Goldman is required to create only a fraction of the pols' promised new jobs 800 to 1,078 and retain about 9,000 ex-istingjobs, documents show.

Asked about these goals, Goldman spokeswoman Raphael said the company has met its "obligations to date and we fully expect to meet them going forward." She declined to provide specifics. dfeidennydailynews.com BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER WALL STREET giant Goldman Sachs will forgive $161 million in penalties the city would have had to pay Jan. 1 because Ground Zero remains undeveloped, the Daily News has learned. The year-end gift comes as the PR-challenged bank posted record profits after getting $10 billion in taxpayer bailout funds and its CEO insisted he was just a banker doing God's work. The city had agreed to waive $161 million in lease payments Goldman is obligated to pay Battery Park City through 2069 if the city failed to "develop" and "implement" a security plan for owntown by 3 1 Since there are no buildings at the World Trade Center site, the counterterror plan cannot be implemented and Goldman was to cash in New Year's Day.

In an act aimed at repairing its tarnished image, Goldman took the issue off the table, sources with knowledge of talks between the bank and City Hall said. Goldman was described as delighted with the NYPD's security plan for Ground Zero even though it can'tbe implemented. Albany is not so lucky: Goldman stands to pocket $160 million from the state if the Port Authority doesn't finish most of the blockbuster projects at Ground Zero by Dec. 31 a target that cannot be met. It was allowed to put its sales tax payments into an escrow account and may soon get them back since the Transportation Hub and Vehicular Security Center are years from opening.

Goldman, city and state officials all declined to discuss ongoing talks on this issue. Shed no tears for Goldman, though Despite the giveback, the firm will reap the benefits of the public's largesse with its $2.1 billion gleaming downtown tower, which got the biggest subsidy package of any office building in the city. Goldman employees have begun moving into the firm's new headquarters a tower built on a foundation of $550 million in tax breaks and cash grants. The Goldman perks were set in 2005, four years after terrorists leveled the World Trade Center, when the planet's richest investment bank won the huge subsidy to build a 43-story tower at 200 West St. Mayor Bloomberg and then-Gov.

George Pataki approved the deal, giving Goldman $1.65 bil Ilia (Ill rHHLii- PBBiB- Inn; il naB I 1 I i GM -l a wtMVS iMmrTmTraiTn 2 ii 4 era mm ill 'in mn' tit nmn GOLDMAN SACHS spared no expense in building its gleaming lower Manhattan aerie. It has dining rooms, a 32-person kitchen, 20-seat pantry, 770-seat cafeteria and fitness rooms for 561 executives, city records show. The building boasts a daycare center for 67 kids and a sky lobby with a grand three-story stairway soaring from the 11th floor that has been called "Goldman's living room in the sky." Goldman plutocrats can also bask on an outdoor terrace on the 43rd floor with breathtaking views. The money-making heart of the operation is the six giant trading floors covering 10 acres a space larger than Bryant Park. Spanning floors three through eight, it's the largest trading space in New York City, able to accommodate 1,000 traders per floor.

Goldman also sunk big bucks into security precautions, keeping its name off the building and ringing the perimter with bollards that can stop a truck, traveling up to 50 mph, from penetrating more than three feet, lease documents show. Douglas Feiden.