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Ten years ago, when Gabriel Aiello opened Gabriel's Bar and Restaurant at West 60th Street and Broadway, the location--across the street from the New York Coliseum--was not entirely a selling point. A few blocks north was Lincoln Center, but the restaurant itself was "facing a wall," the restaurateur recalls.
Is that ever going to change.
Like other businesses in the Columbus Circle neighborhood, Gabriel's will soon be facing the real estate equivalent of an 800-pound gorilla: the $1.7 billion, 2.1 million-square-foot AOL Time Warner Center, which will replace the old Coliseum with offices, luxury condos, a Mandarin Oriental hotel, television studios, Jazz at Lincoln Center and seven levels of stores and restaurants.
Why go outside?
Many nearby businesses are looking for a big bounce when the complex opens in 2003. They foresee hordes of residents and office workers pouring out of the doors and into their stores and restaurants.
The very richness of the complex may be more a curse than a blessing for its neighbors, however. Since the building will have so many...