Citigroup Inc. plans to move 1,600 employees from lower Manhattan to Warren, N.J., and 300 to Melville, on New York's Long Island, it said in a press release issued jointly Tuesday with Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office.
Most of the jobs are in technology. A spokeswoman said Citi wants to cut the high concentration of such jobs downtown.
New Jersey is making it worth Citi's while to move employees there. It will award the company $57 million in grants over the next 10 years under its Business Employment Incentive Program, on the condition that Citi create new jobs, according to a press release from the office of Gov. James E. McGreevey.
Citigroup will add 650 jobs in the state and will invest $80 million in the Warren facility, it said.
The company has not yet decided when the employees will be moved and does not plan to give up any office space in lower Manhattan, the spokeswoman said. It expects to add 600 jobs in New York City and to increase its office space in Manhattan by 420,000 square feet in the next two years.
Citi also said that early next year it would begin building a 14-floor, 475,000-square-foot building in Long Island City to accommodate 1,500 workers.
