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In real estate as in love, a lot can happen in a decade.
In 1988, Chase Manhattan Bank left The Lefrak Organization at the altar, opting at the last minute to establish a mammoth back-office operation at Brooklyn's MetroTech Center instead of in Lefrak's nascent Newport complex in Jersey City.
One merger and one long economic boom later, Chase changed its mind.
Early last summer, the bank agreed to lease 1.2 million square feet of space at Newport. Starting in January 2002, Chase plans to move some 2,000 employees and consultants across the Hudson River.
The tale behind the bank's change of heart is a story of a confident and seemingly infinitely patient suitor, one who knew when to wait, and when to woo.
"Several times, we had gotten down to the wire with big corporations at Newport and had been disappointed," says Richard S. LeFrak, company president.
That was certainly the case with Standard & Poor's, which spurned Newport three years ago.
At that point, though, Mr. LeFrak and his father, Chairman Samuel J. LeFrak, decided that they would not wait. They began building their planned 7 millionsquare-foot, seven-building corporate
center anyway.
"We built...