There's word insurance giant Met Life will soon move many employees back to Manhattan, five years after it announced it was relocating them to Queens.

According to the New York Times, Met Life is expected to sign a deal to move most of its 1,700 New York employees from Long Island City to Midtown.

In 2001, the city gave the company millions in tax breaks to keep it in the city after it threatened to move to New Jersey. The city had hoped to create an affordable business district in Queens as an alternative to Manhattan.

But the Times says company executives have been unhappy with the neighborhood, citing its lack of restaurants and the fact that a bus drops off former Rikers Island inmates a few blocks away.

Met Life is reportedly close to signing a deal to move into the former Verizon Building on Sixth Avenue.

If the move goes through, the company could have to repay millions of dollars in incentives it claimed.

______________________________________

Copyright © 2006 NY1 News. All rights reserved.