http://www.nysun.com/article/66833
Port Authority Races To Avoid Ground Zero Penalties
By GRACE RAUH
November 21, 2007
To avoid penalties of $300,000 a day, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is racing to finish work on the east side of the former World Trade Center site by the end of the year. Real estate industry experts are skeptical it will be able to meet the January 1 deadline.
Following the redevelopment agreement struck in April 2006, the Port Authority, which owns the property, is in charge of excavating and building slurry walls along the eastern portion of the site to prepare it for the construction of three large office towers being developed by Silverstein Properties. If the Port Authority does not finish the work by the end of the year, it will have to pay $300,000 each day to Silverstein Properties, which leased the World Trade Center site six weeks before it collapsed.
Construction workers for the Port Authority are now working 10-hour shifts to prepare the site, with two shifts of workers Monday through Saturday. Some additional work also is taking place on Sundays, but not at the same level as the rest of the week, a spokesman for the Port Authority, Steven Coleman, said
The president of the Real Estate Board of New York, Steven Spinola, said the Port Authority is working "extremely hard."
"There is a shot they will make the deadline," he said in a recent interview.
Another downtown development official said it is "unlikely" the Port Authority, a bi-state agency controlled by appointees of the governors of New York and New Jersey, would prepare the site before deadline.
Mr. Coleman wrote in an e-mail message that the Port Authority's "plan remains to deliver the site on December 31."
The developer,
Larry Silverstein, yesterday announced that his company had hired the Yonkers Contracting Company to build the foundations for the two office towers, a move that could put more pressure on the Port Authority. In a news release, Silverstein Properties said it expects to begin work on January 2, and a spokesman for the company said the company had received no indication that the work would be delayed.
The first of the two office buildings to be built along Church Street, known as Tower 2, is designed by architect Fumihiko Maki, and the city has a tentative deal to lease 600,000 square feet of office space from the developer. The second tower to be built, known as Tower 3, is designed by Lord Richard Rogers and is slated to rise about 1,050 feet and contain about 2 million square feet of office space. Both are scheduled for completion in 2011.
The World Trade Center project director for the Silverstein Properties, Janno Lieber, said in a statement that the company would keep to a tight schedule as it begins construction.
"As we have seen from the market, New York's economy urgently needs new first-class office space in order to retain jobs and maintain a competitive edge in the global economy," he said.
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Obviously some errors in there
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http://www.globest.com/news/1040_104.../166156-1.html
WTC Work Moves Forward With Foundation Contracts
By Melissa Kress
November 20, 2007
NEW YORK CITY-Work on World Trade Center Towers 3 and 4 has taken a step forward now Silverstein Properties has awarded Yonkers Contracting Co. of New York the contracts to build the foundation for the two buildings. World Trade Center 3 will rise at 175 Greenwich St. and World Trade Center 4 will rise at 150 Greenwich St.
The Yonkers Contracting Co. contracts are the first awarded for the $7-billion, five-year construction project that will consist of three new towers rising on the eastern portion of the 16-acre World Trade Center site. The foundation awards for the two towers total $40 million.
The foundation work is slated to begin Jan. 2. According to Silverstein Properties, the initial work will take place 85 feet below Church Street and involve about 50 construction workers. Individual tower footings will be excavated a further 10 feet to 12 feet and the foundation work will enable the towers’ superstructure to begin around six months later, the development company adds.
The start of the work will come just days after the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey turns over the sites for the two towers to Silverstein, as outlined in a November 2006 agreement. World Trade Center Towers 3 and 4 are expected to be ready for occupancy in 2012.
“These contracts are the first part of the actual construction of 150 and 175 Greenwich,” World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein says in statement. “It’s the beginning of the vibrant new business district that we are creating Downtown.”
Yonkers Contracting is no stranger to the World Trade Center site. The PA of NY/NJ hired the company to help restore PATH services to the area after the Sept. 11 attacks. Other area projects Yonkers Contracting has worked on include Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station and emergency repair work on the Brooklyn Bridge.
“Yonkers Contracting Co. responded to the World Trade Center disaster with site remediation services and is proud to have led the joint venture that re-opened the PATH tunnels and temporary station ahead of schedule,” Yonkers Contracting CEO Carl Petrillo says in a statement. “We are privileged to be back at the World Trade Center site, pleased to be participating in its redevelopment, and look forward to starting work in the New Year.”
The contracts come two months after the final designs for the towers were revealed, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners designed 175 Greenwich, a 71-story tower set to rise 1,147 feet above street level on a site bounded by Greenwich, Church, Dey and Cortlandt streets. The building will contain 193,000 sf of retail, 54 office floors with 2.1 million sf and five trading floors. Maki Associates is the design firm behind 150 Greenwich, a 64-story tower set to rise 975 feet on a site bounded by Greenwich, Church, Cortlandt and Liberty streets. It will contain 56 office floors with 1.8 million sf, and five floors of retail. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey inked a deal to take a third of the office space for its new headquarters.