Verizon to move workers into Chinatown building

Mayor Nutter is expected to announce today that Verizon Communications Inc. will relocate several hundred jobs into a former Bell Atlantic building in the 900 block of Race Street in Chinatown.

A news conference is set for this morning at City Hall for the announcement.

Verizon, which is based in New York, employs 2,000 in Philadelphia and, among other operations, has a video hub for its FiOS TV service on Oregon Avenue. The company does not have a license to offer FiOS TV in the city.

Verizon owns 33 buildings in Philadelphia and leases space in 14 others, a company official said. It has 720 employees at 1717 Arch St., which is the Bell Atlantic Tower. Verizon was created by the merger in 1997 of Bell Atlantic Corp., the regional phone company based in Philadelphia, and Nynex Corp., which served New York and New England from New York City.