Newsday from New York, New York • 40

tlK-M A' 14135 JAPANESE YEN DOWN FROM 14241 siV 5990 T- ENGUSH ffili POUNDS DOWN FROM 6039 Dollar 17937 GERMAN MARKS UP FROM 17870 3 i A Grand Plan For Coliseum Site Developer chosen for city project QUIGKS Con Ed Ranked in Top 50 For Diverse Employment Based on findings in a recent survey of more than 1000 top companies Fortune Magazine has ranked Con Edison among the top employers for Asian African-American and Hispanic workers price for the site the project would cost $13 billion He hopes to start construe tion in 12 months and complete it three years later Time Warner with $25 billion in annual revenues now has its headquarters at Rockefeller Center on 18 floors with 500 employees It would also move nearly 700 employees from CNN and NY1 to the new site The new complex might also include an interactive TV studio tour said Ed Adler a spokesman for Time Warner which has 10000 employees in New York State The company is expected to seek a large tax break Beverly Siegel president of the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development a group of area residents that is suing to block development of the site said the project is Cun Edison's ranking was 19 nut of the SO top companies in the aurvey The utility waa among aev-en New York-baaed companies to be included Others included TIAA-CREF Bell Atlantic Chaae Manhattan and American Express Con Edison which employs nearly 15000 pontons had a work force in 1997 that had more than a 30 percent minority presence In addition minorities accounted for 37 percent of the new hires more than 40 percent of the people promoted and 16 percent of Con officers and managers The Fortune ranking comes on the heels of the recognition by the City Council in June for its Minority Business Program which bought more than $82-mil-lion in gixxis and services in 1997 from minority-owned firms Caryn Eve Murray New York Fed To Expand Tours In the latest sign of increased transparency at the US central bunk the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has decided to let visitors catch a glimpse of its open-market desk operations The New York Fed already allows about 150 visitors a day in Bmall groups to tour its vaults which hold billions of dollars of gold owned by foreign countries The tour also includes the lobby exhibit that details the purpose and mechanism of monetary policy and its relation with the economy and financial markets Added to the tour now is a look from behind a glass wall at the modernized open-market desk operations The visitors will now catch a peek of the 30 or bo Fed staffers who handle government securities and foreign exchange transactions for the Fed the US Treasury and foreign central banks The new additions to the tour also include a small and very informative exhibit on the history of the open-market desk and the implementation of monetary policy over the years A New York Fed staffer will give visitors detailed explanations about the role of the central bank since its foundation in 1913 and the array of services its provides to the US government foreign central banks international agencies commercial banks and the public Reuters CVS to Acquire 16 Thriftways CVS Corp and Thriitway Pharmacy Associates have reached an agreement under which CVS will acquire 16 Thriftway drugstores in the metropolitan New York market The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of August The stores to be acquired are located throughout Queens Brooklyn The Bronx Manhattan Staten Island Inwood and Eastchester CVS operates approximately 4000 stores in 24 states and the District of Columbia Stock Watch How Queens' 10 largest stocks based on market value fared By Harry Berkowitz STAFF WRITER The newly chosen developer of the long-stalled Coliseum site at Columbus Circle in Manhattan yesterday predicted the hotel apartment entertainment and retail complex and Time Warner headquarters will be the Rockefeller Center of the next century Mayor Rudolph Giuliani yesterday gave the approval to choose The Related Companies as the lead developer of the 21 million-square-foot complex including 750-foot-tall twin towers overlooking the southwest corner of Central Park Some earlier proposals over the past 14 years drew lawsuits and community protests over size and design including complaints from the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis that one project would have cast an ominous shadow over the park But Giuliani said the city believes it can overcome any legal challenges and Time Warner has agreed to pick up the $345 million pricetag in two years if the prqject is delayed building will become an icon in the New York City skyline and will complement the diverse character of the surrounding Giuliani said The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board which a year ago was dose to selling to another of the nine bidders Millennium Partners but was blocked by Giuliani is expected to approve Related today Donald Trump was the highest bidder at $390 million but his design was bulkier becomes the Rockefeller Center for the 21st said Stephen Ross chairman of Related and owner of a 5 percent stake in the New York Islanders hockey team who added he also hopes to build a 1 million-square-foot megamall and hotel in a proposed new Nassau Coliseum the terms of which are being negotiated with Nassau County The Columbus Circle complex would include a 425-room Mandarin Oriental Hotel 375 condominium apartments a 750000-square-foot Time Warner headquarters 100000 square feet of digital studio space for the Cable News Network and NY1 news channel a 1000-seat auditorium for Jazz at Lincoln Center 400000 square feet Of retail space and about 12 movie theater screens Ross said including the purchase fr 1 Newady Photo Patrick Andrade Stephen Ross with rendering of new Coliseum site The Top 100 The Nowaday Top 100 Bloomberg Stock Index: 121 11232 too But Ethel Sheffer a spokesman for Community Boards 4 5 and 7 said the project has lot of including a public galleria and that the entertainment components make it into another Times Square Brendan Sexton chairman of the Municipal Art Society which had sued to block an earlier project by developer Mortimer Zuckerman said that in choosing the Related-Time Warner plan the city for the quality project instead of the highest In 1985 Boston Properties agreed to pay $455 million for the site but bowed out in 1994 118 115 112 Jan 1 1997-100.