Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and AIG Face Weeks Without Offices in Lower Manhattan

Not all of "Wall Street" is back to work. While the New York Stock Exchange is up and running on a back up generator and land lines, many Wall Street firms have offices in the Wall Street area which had been hard hit by Hurricane Sandy, causing flooding and power outages, that may take weeks to rectify.

Morgan Stanley, AIG, Citigroup and a number of smaller banks have offices in buildings that are dark or have water in the basements.

According to Bloomberg, landlords are draining basements and determining what it will take to get vital systems for electricity and steam back in service. Citigroup's office at 111 Wall Street will be unusable for weeks and a building housing senior capital-markets executives lost power.

Citigroup is assessing when buildings at 388 and 390 Greenwich Street can open, a process complicated by power failures and transit disruptions, according to a memo sent to employees. Citigroup uses those offices as the headquarters for its trading and investment-banking operations.

Another building shuttered to tenants is 110 Wall, home to First Investors Management Co., which offers mutual funds and other financial products, and M.R. Beal & Co., an investment bank.

“Depending on the systems affected, we’re talking weeks, not days,” said Jim Rosenbluth, managing director for crisis management at Cushman & Wakefield Inc., which manages about 15 million square feet of properties in downtown Manhattan.

The building at 180 Maiden Lane, which houses AIG’s headquarters, suffered “heavy flooding,” according to co-landlord SL Green Realty Corp.

Morgan Stanley’s offices at 1 New York Plaza are closed and may remain that way  for weeks because salt water got into the basement where operating systems are located, said a person who asked not to be identified.