"The [former] MCI deal is a work in progress and should be doneshortly," Sims says. Sims and John Barnes, senior vice president,director of Reckson's Westchester/Connecticut portfolio, were guestspeakers at the Westchester County Board of Realtors CommercialInvestment Division meeting yesterday. Both men say that the tenantinterest in the 60,000 sf of former MCI space that will becomeavailable will be one of the factors that will determine whetherReckson will move forward with planned new construction at RecksonExecutive Park. Verizon Communications completed the merger withMCI in January of this year.

Reckson has announced plans to possibly build 7 InternationalDr., a 315,000-sf office building at the complex. Sims says thatReckson management could go to the firm's executive committee asearly as this fall to get the go-ahead for the venture. Earlierthis year, Reckson received an inducement for approximately $4.9million in sales and use tax incentives from the Westchester CountyIndustrial Development Agency in connection with the 7International Dr. project that it estimated would cost $86 millionto build.

The building would be phase three of its 79-acre, six-buildingReckson Executive Park, which currently totals 540,000 sf ofexisting office space. Sims and Barnes detailed a host of siteimprovements planned at Reckson Executive Park this year aswell.Reckson will kickoff what Barnes terms "the largestrepositioning Westchester County has ever seen," next month. Thefirm plans to stage an event on June 13 to detail its multi-year,multimillion repositioning of the former 1.6-million-sf EastRidgeoffice portfolio, which Reckson acquired in December last year for$255 million. Sims says the repositioning program to transform theportfolio into class A properties will begin on Westchester Ave. atthe White Plains Office Park and then move to 2500 and 2700Westchester Ave. properties. The Reckson executives note that afinal cost estimate on the EastRidge portfolio repositioning hasyet to be determined.