According to the NYSUN and Lowermanhattan.info this building will have 53 storeys.
Additionally the architect is Gwathmey Siegel and construction is supposendly set to start before the new year.
Silverstein Faces Some Competition For Liberty Bonds
BY DAVID LOMBINO - Staff Reporter of the Sun
December 9, 2005
URL:
http://www.nysun.com/article/24196
Developer Larry Silverstein has some serious competition for the tax-exempt Liberty Bonds he wants to use to rebuild the World Trade Center site - in the form of an application from developer Joseph Moinian for $147 million in tax-exempt bonds to build a 53-story, mixed-use hotel and residential condominium tower about a block south of ground zero.
Mr. Moinian's $240 million project, which includes 440,000 square feet, 220 hotel rooms, and 180 residential condo units, appears to fall more in line with Mayor Bloomberg's vision for more mixed-use development in Lower Manhattan. Construction is ready to begin immediately and could be completed by 2007, according to Mr. Moinian.
The address of the Moinian building would be 123 Washington St., now an empty lot. The site, adjacent to the Deutsche Bank building now being dismantled, was affected by the September 11, 2001, attacks but not as severely as the Silverstein site.
Andrew Alper, the president of the city's Industrial Development Agency, the agency that distributes the bonds, indicated that the city, state, and Mr. Moinian have discussed $50 million in bonds, considerably less than the developer's original proposal. The bonds would essentially finance the hotel portion of the development. Should Mr. Moinian not receive the bonds, the project will be built as luxury condos.
Yesterday, Mr. Moinian, whose firm says it already controls 14 million square feet of Manhattan real estate, said his application was not intended to compete with the redevelopment of ground zero. "I want nothing more than to see Silverstein succeed in developing the World Trade Center site, I have no doubt that he will get this done. My request has been to add to and complement the site, Silverstein's project, and to the heart of Lower Manhattan, bringing a beautiful structure and a first class hotel to the area, including permanent jobs."
Both developers' Liberty Bond applications were submitted in April. Mr. Moinian's bonds could come out of Mr. Silverstein's request for all $3.35 billion remaining of the Liberty Bonds that were authorized by Congress after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Yesterday the city held a public hearing over Mr. Silverstein's application to use all of the remaining Liberty Bonds to replace the 10 million square feet of commercial office that was lost when the World Trade Center was destroyed. The financing from the bonds would supplement insurance proceeds from the terrorist attacks that could amount to $4.65 billion.
Mr. Alper yesterday said that the city would negotiate over the weekend with Mr. Silverstein, with the goal of settling on the terms and conditions of a bond allocation before a potential vote on Tuesday. "We don't have many disagreements with Larry Silverstein," he said.
In an effort to add more flexibility to a long-term deal and hedge some of the risk from depleting the entire Liberty Bond arsenal, Mr. Alper said the city is trying to add "claw-backs" that would allow the city to take back the bonds and redistribute the tax-exempt financing to other development projects if certain construction benchmarks are not met.
Mr. Alper noted that one potential future use for the bonds was to help develop a retail component at ground zero, a task that belongs to the Port Authority, but no application has been filed. He also said the city wanted to make sure that Mr. Silverstein's developer's fee is not "too excessive."
Yesterday the senior vice president of Silverstein's World Trade Center Properties, John Lieber, downplayed the differences between the city and the developer. "The big issue has been resolved. The city wanted a commitment to an aggressive schedule and we agreed," Mr. Lieber said. He said the savings in finance costs generated from the Liberty Bonds would permit the developer to build the project "as fast as engineering can allow."
Yesterday's public hearing over Mr. Silverstein's application lasted nearly two hours and contained passionate testimony both for and against Mr. Silverstein's proposal. More than 20 civic leaders and private citizens used a variety of economic, political, moral, and logistical arguments to try to influence the board members of the IDA in advance of its vote. The co-chair of Battery Park City United, David Stanke, said the mayor's suggestion of taking control of the site from Mr. Silverstein "feels like eminent domain - taking the rights of a private developer and giving it back to the government."
The chairman of the West Street Coalition, John Dellaportas, said it was immoral to use the Liberty Bonds for any purpose other than "filling that hole." He said that the city was unfit to tell a private developer how he should spend his money. "History will record that Osama bin Laden destroyed the World Trade Center and Michael Bloomberg kept it from being rebuilt," he said.
If the vote on the bonds is delayed beyond the scheduled meeting Tuesday, a resolution may have to wait until regularly scheduled monthly board meetings in January, February or beyond.