Business: Bare Cupboard

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Ordinarily, David Rockefeller, chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank and a centimillionaire in his own right, would expect to have no trouble at all negotiating a loan from his friendly neighborhood banker. Or so it was assumed in 1967 when Rockefeller and a group of associates privately embarked on a plan to build "Rockefeller Center West," a $150 million redevelopment project in downtown San Francisco. Last week Rockefeller notified the city that he had been unable to raise enough money to begin work on the nucleus of the project, a $30 million, 16-story hotel. At an interest rate of more than 10%, the lowest that the Rockefeller group could get, the hotel would be unprofitable. San Francisco's redevelopment agency gave Rockefeller an extra six months to try to arrange a loan at a lower rate.