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Clinton to rent new office
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FORMER US President Clinton is close to signing a lease for pricey office space in midtown Manhattan.
A Clinton aide said the deal for the 6,000-square-foot office in the tony Carnegie Hall Tower on West 57th Street could be finalized in the next few days. The lease had not been signed yet, said the aide, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Annual rent for the 56th floor suite is expected to run about US$650,000 a year.
The office has a commanding view of Central Park. In the neighbourhood are the famed Russian Tea Room restaurant, the Carnegie Deli and Carnegie Hall.
Like other former presidents, Clinton's post-White House office will be paid for by taxpayers. Because of that, some watchdog groups - like the National Taxpayers Union and the Congressional Accountability Project - have questioned Clinton's decision to be located in such an expensive New York City neighbourhood.
The rent is more than twice the US$285,000 Ronald Reagan's California office costs taxpayers. Former President Bush's Texas office costs US$147,000; former President Carter's in Georgia, US$93,000, and former President Ford's in Michigan, US$99,000.
The office building is about an hour's drive from the Clintons' five-bedroom home in suburban Chappaqua. They purchased that home to give Hillary Rodham Clinton a New York address from which to launch her successful bid for the US Senate. (SD-Agencies)
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