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The National Broadcasting Co. wants cheap rent; Donald Trump wants NBC at his ambitious Television City project on the West Side; ABC wants whatever city aid NBC gets, and the Koch administration faces the near impossibility of satisfying everyone.
Preventing NBC from moving across the Hudson to inexpensive headquarters in the Meadowlands has placed the Koch administration in a bind. Under pressure from Mr. Trump, the state and others who can't fathom Manhattan without the colorful peacock, the city is working to come up with a tax and financial incentive package that would keep the network in the city. However, the mayor fears setting a dangerous precedent by giving too much to NBC, angering community groups and civic activists.
"NBC certainly has the symbolic value for New York City that a company like Morgan Stanley (which is considering a move to Westchester) doesn't, and it's highly desirable to keep them," says Richard Ravitch, the banker, builder and longtime government official. "But if you subsidize them too much, how do you not give in to everyone else who threatens to move? One of the reasons you want NBC here is that they're taxpayers."
At issue, too, is the Koch administration's commitment to economic development and to stemming a recent wave of corporate defections from New York. And time is running out. Mr. Trump says he expects a decision from NBC's parent, General Electric Co., within weeks.
"The city is well-meaning but clearly doesn't have the direction that needs to be followed to keep major corporations," says a source close to the negotiations between Mr. Trump and the city.
The city contends that it has worked hard all along to keep NBC in New York. Deputy Mayor Alair Townsend says she presented the network a list of potential sites nearly two years ago, and that she is in contact with the network several times a day.
If NBC leaves, the city will lose another 4,000 jobs, on top of the 6,000 lost when Mobil Corp. and...