Newsday from New York, New York • 40

A40 Business 1998 29, JULY WEDNESDAY, NEWSDAY, BUSINESS UP 1.7870 1.7937 MARKS GERMAN FROM YEN DOWN 142.41 141.35 JAPANESE FROM .5990 .6039 DOWN ENGLISH POUNDS FROM Dollar QUEENS INC. Con Ed Ranked in Top 50 For Diverse Employment Based on findings in a 1,000 top companies, Fortune Edison among the nation's African-American and Hispanic Con Edison's ranking was 19 out of the 50 top companies in the survey. The utility was among seven New York-based companies to be included. Others included TIAA-CREF, Bell Atlantic, Chase Manhattan and American Express. Con Edison, which employs nearly 15,000 persons, had a work force in 1997 that had more than a 30 percent minority presence.

In addition, minorities accounted for 37 percent of the utility's new hires, more than 40 percent of the people promoted and 16 percent of Con Edison's officers and managers. The Fortune ranking comes on the heels of the utility's recognition by the City Council in June for its Minority Business Program, which bought more than $82-million in goods 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 U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has decided to let visitors catch a glimpse of its openmarket desk operations. The New York Fed already allows about 150 visitors a day in small 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. The Top 100 The Newsday Top Bloomberg Stock Index: 121 112.32 118 115 112 WTF MT Jan. 1, Newsday A Grand Plan For Coliseum Site Developer chosen for city project out be a 37 Con the for recent survey of more than Magazine has ranked Con top employers for Asian, workers. Added to the tour now is a look from behind a glass wall at the Fed's modernized open-market desk operations. The visitors will now catch a peek of the 30 or so Fed staffers who handle government securities and foreign exchange transactions for the Fed, the U.S.

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 U.S. government, foreign central banks, international agencies, commercial banks and the public. Reuters CVS to Acquire 16 Thriftways CVS Corp.

and Thriftway 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 4,000 stores in 24 states and the District of Columbia. 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 city's approval to choose The Related Companies as the lead developer of the 2.1 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 project is. delayed. "This building will become an icon in the New York City skyline and will complement the diverse character of the surrounding neighborhoods," Giuliani said.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, which a year ago was close 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. "This becomes the Rockefeller Center for the 21st said Stephen Ross, chairman of Related and owner of a Stock Watch 5 percent stake in the How Queens' 10 largest stocks, based on market value, fared terday. Close Change QueenCB StMotr FlushF 243 HavenB SchickT AndreaE Madden 1016 FinciBcp WstBeef 9 TowrAir 3 price for the site, the project would cost $1.3 billion. He hopes to start construction 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 10,000 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 "absolutely Newsday Photo Patrick Andrade Related's Stephen Ross with rendering of new Coliseum site.

yes- New York Islanders hockey team, who added he also hopes too large." to build a 1 million-square-foot mega- But Ethel Sheffer, a spokesman for mall and hotel in a proposed new Nas- Community Boards 4, 5 and 7, said the sau Coliseum, the terms of which are project has "a lot of positives," includbeing negotiated with Nassau County. ing a public galleria, and that the enterThe Columbus Circle complex would tainment components won't make it include a 425-room Mandarin Oriental into another Times Square. Hotel, 375 condominium apartments, a Brendan Sexton, chairman of the Time Warner Municipal Art Society, which had sued headquarters, 100,000 square feet of to block an earlier project by developer digital studio space for the company's Mortimer Zuckerman, said that in Cable News Network and NY1 news choosing the Related-Time Warner channel, a auditorium for plan, the city "went for the quality proJazz at Lincoln Center, 400,000 square ject instead of the highest price." In feet of retail space, and about 12 movie 1985, Zuckerman's Boston Properties theater screens. agreed to pay $455 million for the site, Ross said including the purchase but bowed out in 1994..