FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                  2001-112


       SEC Northeast Regional Office Reopens in Manhattan

     Washington,  D.C.,  October  15,  2001-We  are  pleased   to
announce  that  our  office in New York City officially  reopened
today  in  a  new  location in the heart of the city's  financial
district.  Our original offices were destroyed during the  tragic
events of September 11.
     
     The  new  home of our Northeast Regional Office  is  in  the
historic  Woolworth Building (233 Broadway) in  lower  Manhattan.
Our  employees have worked from several locations since they  all
were  safely  evacuated prior to the collapse of  7  World  Trade
Center.
     
     SEC  Chairman Harvey L. Pitt and Commissioners Isaac C. Hunt
and  Laura  S.  Unger welcomed returning staffers  to  their  new
office.   New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso, Nasdaq
CEO  Hardwick Simmons, American Stock Exchange Chairman  and  CEO
Salvatore Sodano, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of  New
York Mary Jo White, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District
of  New  York Alan Vinegrad, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys  Robert
Khuzami  and Eric Corngold also attended the reopening.
     
     We  commend the State and City of New York, Governor  George
Pataki, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Con Edison and Verizon for  their
heroic efforts in reopening the markets and helping us become the
first  federal  agency  displaced by the September  11  terrorist
attacks  to  relocate  its  staff permanently  in  the  financial
district.   We are also extremely grateful to the U.S. Attorney's
Offices  in Brooklyn and Manhattan, which generously provided  us
with  office space in the interim and gave us a home  to  oversee
our recovery efforts.
     
     But  our  highest accolades are reserved for our  New  York-
based staff, who have continued to fulfill their responsibilities
while diligently reconstructing records to ensure that no case or
investigation will be lost because of the temporary disruption.
     
     "By  their  efforts  since the tragedy,  and  through  their
ongoing  commitment to the protection of our capital markets  and
individual  investors, the employees of our New York office  have
shown  the world that we will not waver from our duties  even  in
the  face  of the most enormous physical and emotional obstacles.
We  owe  each  of them a tremendous debt of gratitude;  they  are
genuine heroes," Chairman Pitt said.
     
     The  Northeast  Regional Office and its 334  employees  will
occupy  five  floors  of  the  Woolworth  Building.  All  of  the
office's  major  furniture,  equipment,  telephones  and computer
systems necessary to resume operations are already in place.  The
SEC signed a 10-year lease for the property on September 26.
                                
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