Printing firms press ahead, find garment district space; Rents affordable in slow market; law...

Byline: lore croghan

Scores of printers left Manhattan over the past half-decade, driven out by gentrifying landlords and rising rents. But now that the leasing market here has softened so much, some printers are finding refuge in garment district buildings.

Two printing firms that recently signed leases are arrivals from outside the city.

"They felt rents in Manhattan had reached a point where they are affordable,'' says Paul Walker, a director at Adams & Co. Real Estate.

One of his clients, A.E.C. Reprographics, came from New Hyde Pa