NEW YORK CITY-AIG will move out of its headquarters location at 180 Maiden Lane next year and relocate employees who work in the building to two locations: 175 Water St., which it owns, and 80 Pine St., where it already has a presence. The company is looking to consolidate its Downtown footprint in Lower Manhattan, spokesman Jon Diat tells GlobeSt.com.

“AIG is in the process of consolidating its extensive lower Manhattan real estate foot print to ensure greater and more efficient work and cost savings,” he says. “As various leases expire in lower Manhattan, we'll be consolidating into two buildings, 175 Water St. and 80 Pine St. AIG has a large presence in New York City and will continue to be headquartered in lower Manhattan.”

The Water Street tower would be AIG's third headquarters in five years. The company was previously based at 70 Pine St., and signed a deal in 2009 to sell that building, according to Crain's New York Business. The Maiden Lane lease was intended to be temporary.

At 175 Water St., which spans 31 floors, AIG takes up the entire building. Diat declined to disclose the size of its leases, but the insurance group likely has an agreement to take up a smaller span of office space. In recent years, the company has made significant workforce reductions, going from about 1,900 employees at 180 Maiden Lane to 1,500 at 175 Water St., according to Crain's New York Business. AIG had 63,000 employees as of Dec. 31, compared with about 116,000 at the end of 2008.

AIG plans to move out of 180 Maiden Lane by the start of next year's second quarter. "We're moving jobs all around where we can get the best workforce at the right price," says CEO Robert Benmosche. "This is about managing our expenses."

The move is not an effort to shrink the company, he says. Rather, it's a salvo in the battle to operate more efficiently. "We're not looking to shrink ourselves into greatness," says Benmosche."We're looking to develop ourselves and to grow into a big company, not just worry about cutting expenses."

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