Wall Street West
Firms may back up offices in Pa. in case of new terror
BY PAUL D. COLFORD
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Talk about macabre marketing.
Executives of New York firms are due today at a Pocono Mountains golf resort to hear a pitch for Wall Street West - a plan to develop backup business offices in the event of another deadly terrorist attack.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has committed more than $30 million to an effort to build and wire satellite office space in the northeastern part of the state - an area some 80 miles or more from Manhattan.
The plans are so far along that construction is set to begin in June on a 300,000-square-foot corporate campus in rural Middle Smithfield Township - population 11,500.
The project has become known as the Penn Regional Business Center.
"Wall Street West is an idea and a vision ... and we're ready to go," Debbie Burke, assistant director of public affairs for the Penn Regional Business Center, told the Daily News yesterday.
A brochure for the center offers this sales pitch:
"Terrorism experts agree it's not a question of if there will be another terrorist attack ... only when," it reads. "In the event of a disaster, a business continuity office at PRBC is ideal."
After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the federal government recommended that financial services companies establish backup sites and devise "business continuity" plans to safeguard their operations against terrorists. The goal is to resume the processing of financial transactions as early as two hours after an attack.
Bigwigs from more than 20 leading Wall Street firms are expected on the 30-minute helicopter ride to the Poconos.
Wall Street West represents a huge, cautious step since 9/11 jolted companies, especially those located in lower Manhattan, into relocating some operations and planning how they would do business in the event of another calamity.
In 2002, the New York Stock Exchange reportedly considered sites in Westchester, where it could safely resume trading activity if its landmark headquarters at 23 Wall St. were incapacitated.
Penn Regional developer Larry Simon said he won't build unless tenants are signed, but added, "I don't see anything that would stop me from meeting that groundbreaking timetable."
Simon, who will be among today's presenters, plans to build nearly 5 million square feet of office space tailored to the needs of financial services companies.
"We can't control the disaster, but we sure as hell can control the recovery," he said.
"We're talking about the preservation of mom and dad's 401(k) plan and Johnny's college fund."
