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  #601  
Old Posted Apr 15, 2009, 4:37 PM
avngingandbright avngingandbright is offline
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Man, at this point, they should just build WTC1, divide the rest into the street grid, and sell to private developers. They'd eat it up like a swarm of locusts.
     
     
  #602  
Old Posted Apr 15, 2009, 9:39 PM
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Originally Posted by avngingandbright View Post
Man, at this point, they should just build WTC1, divide the rest into the street grid, and sell to private developers. They'd eat it up like a swarm of locusts.
Larry Silverstein is a private developer. If he can't get it built, what makes you think someone else will?
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  #603  
Old Posted Apr 15, 2009, 9:40 PM
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Originally Posted by Nomadd22 View Post
I'm a little confused as to why Larry needs financing in the first place. He got about 4.5 billion in insurance payouts, has paid around 600 million in rent and has 900 million left.
I assume I'm missing something big here. Building 4 can't cost that much.
Maybe a large part of the insurance went to the PA when they took over #1?
The insurance proceeds went to a lot of things, including paying the PA rent.

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Originally Posted by NewYorker2009 View Post
I blame Silverstein for choosing Libeskind's dumbass plan because it was too complex and expensive. New Twin Towers would have been easier and less expensive to construct.
If you're gonna comment, stay up to speed. Silverstein didn't choose anything. If these towers are having trouble getting built, towers with nearly twice as much space won't do any better.
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  #604  
Old Posted Apr 15, 2009, 9:52 PM
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http://www.tribecatrib.com/news/2009...ewtc-site.html

Credit Freeze Could Ice World Trade Center Site


A view of the World Trade Center site, looking east along what will be a reconstructed Fulton Street.

By Matt Dunning
UPDATED Apr. 15

Despite steady progress in recent months, a new set of problems threatens to tie up construction indefinitely at the World Trade Center site.

Squeezed by tight credit markets and faced with a rising vacancy rate in Downtown office buildings, Larry Silverstein, whose Silverstein Properties is constructing three of the multibillion-dollar office towers slated for the site, has asked the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to help finance construction of the towers. If a deal is not reached soon, work on Silverstein’s Towers 2, 3 and 4—and the Port Authority’s web of infrastructure projects below them—could come to a halt. Progress on the site as a whole, already years behind schedule and wildly over budget, would slow to a crawl, jeopardizing new timetables and deadlines laid out by the Port Authority last October.

Representatives for both the Port Authority, which owns the entire 16-acre site, and Silverstein Properties have acknowledged that talks are ongoing, but declined to publicly provide details of the negotiations.

“I’m duty-bound not to discuss the substance of those negotiations,” Janno Lieber, the executive in charge of Silverstein’s World Trade Center development, told a Community Board 1 committee during a meeting April 13.

A Silverstein source familiar with the discussions said the company has asked that the Port Authority agree to be guarantors of new loans for Towers 2 and 3. But with no tenants yet signed on for the 4.4 million square feet of office space in those two buildings, the Authority has balked at the idea, according to the source.

"We have to deal with the economic reality today,” Port Authority executive director Christopher Ward said in a statement. “That starts with keeping the Memorial and the other public infrastructure on the timeline and budget we've committed to, and it extends to building the right amount of office space to meet what is now a very different market downtown."

Agreeing to guarantee loans for any of Silverstein’s towers could put the Port Authority’s ability to fund other projects in the region at risk, including a $7 billion-dollar railroad tunnel—funded jointly with the Federal Transportation Administration—spanning the Hudson River. The Authority already pays Silverstein $500,000 a month in “development fees,” and another $300,000 a day because it has not yet turned over the sites for Towers 2 and 3.

An alternative, first floated by the Port Authority in January and resubmitted as a counteroffer to Silverstein’s proposal earlier this month, would have the Authority invest close to $800 million in the construction of Tower 4 in exchange for a share of the building’s rent revenue once it is complete. The Authority would also build the first few floors of Towers 2 and 3, allowing it to complete infrastructure work needed for the memorial museum and transit center. The above-grade “pedestals” would be outfitted with retail tenants, while construction of the towers remained on hold until the economy—and rental market—recovers.

A Silverstein source said the Port Authority has recommended delaying the construction of the office towers by as many as 20 years.


At a hearing in January, Silverstein himself said the logistics of trying to rent ground-level retail spaces without the towers above them would be difficult.

“It’s almost impossible to get quality retail down below when you’re building massive towers up above,” he said.

During the April 13 community board meeting, Lieber was asked when construction of Tower 4 would reach street level.

“You mean, if we keep it going?” he answered, adding that the company may have to stop construction on Tower 4 to allow the Authority time to catch up on infrastructure work, some of which cannot be completed until foundation work on Towers 2 and 3 begins. The three buildings were to be completed between 2012 and 2015.


“We’re trying to figure out whether you can finish, open and operate a building, given where they are in the infrastructure,” Lieber said.

Silverstein said in January that his senior staff had been meeting twice a month with Port Authority officials during the summer about new timetables for the site, including construction of the 1 World Trade Center [the Freedom Tower], the PATH Transportation Hub and the Memorial Museum. Those talks, he said, came to a sudden and unexplained halt in the beginning of September.

“I won’t say that [the Authority is] shutting us out,” Silverstein said, “I just don’t see us being included.”

According to Silverstein, communication ended around Labor Day, about one month before the Port Authority established a new set of deadlines for the projects.

The Authority has since agreed to resume the meetings on a quarterly basis, according to a spokesman for the agency
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  #605  
Old Posted Apr 15, 2009, 10:08 PM
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http://www.globest.com/news/1389_138.../178098-1.html

Reports: Port Authority, SPI at Odds on WTC Timetable

By Paul Bubny
April 15, 2009

Quote:
According to the New York Times, the Port Authority, citing a depressed office market Downtown, wants to delay construction of Towers 2 and 3 for as much as 20 years while providing financing only for the 64-story Tower 4 at 150 Greenwich St. For its part, SPI maintains that the office market will recover and wants to proceed now with at least two of the towers, obtaining funds from the authority on both. Published reports say the authority’s proposal, which was delivered two weeks ago, would also entail the agency taking an equity stake in Tower 4, where it would be headquartered.

A source familiar with the discussions says that developer Larry Silverstein, CEO of SPI, is frustrated by the turn of events. The authority, says the source, "hasn't been able to comply with a single deadline during the entire eight-year rebuilding effort. Now they're desperate for a new deal, to avoid the financial consequences of their delays and more public embarrassment."

Silverstein still is "determined to get the rebuilding done as quickly as possible, and has proposed to join forces with the Port Authority and make them his partners," the source says. "But the authority has totally lost confidence in the city’s ability to bounce back economically, and wants to push the completion of the entire WTC rebuilding off like 15 or 20 years. No way Larry's going to agree to that."

The Port Authority’s board has scheduled a meeting for Thursday morning to discuss the WTC project.
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  #606  
Old Posted Apr 15, 2009, 11:07 PM
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wow fuck the PA

if this happens it will garner national attention and cause a gigantic shitstorm
     
     
  #607  
Old Posted Apr 15, 2009, 11:18 PM
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20 years??

Jesus Fracking Christ.

Can't the government just pull another imaginary $1 trillion out of its ass and get this built as a "stimulus" or something?
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  #608  
Old Posted Apr 16, 2009, 5:16 AM
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Originally Posted by CoolCzech View Post
20 years??
Jesus Fracking Christ. Can't the government just pull another imaginary $1 trillion out of its ass and get this built as a "stimulus" or something?
The PA has long resisted rebuilding all of this space, inexplicably because it was the PA that built the complex in the first place. The PA still owns the complex (Silverstein, when it comes down to it, is just a tenant himself). The agency has hampered and resisted any downright rebuilding of the site. Once again, through "leaks" and "innuendo" in the press, the agency seeks to paint Larry Silverstein as the greedy developer who only cares about building office space.

However, Larry Silverstein has been the one constant at ground zero. He is and has been the "face" of the rebuilding since the beginning. These guys who are runnig the Port Authority now are just the latest in a revolving door of incompetency (likely to be replaced again before any real visual progress on the other towers).

The agency itself stokes up fears of rebuilding. Remember when it was the PA that insisted the Freedom Tower would be a terrorist target, and wanted no part of it? To date, it's the only potential tenant to publicly state that (which they stated again recently, even as they signed a tenant). Suddenly its the market the PA is concerned about. They don't want to flood the market (5 or 6 years down the line) with excess office space they say.

We are fast approaching the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Nearly a decade since the City and its skyline were damaged. Yet the PA thinks it's a good idea to wait a few more decades for the rebuidling. A couple of hours to destroy, a few decades to rebuild in the minds of the Port Authority.

Quote:
"...the authority has totally lost confidence in the city’s ability to bounce back economically, and wants to push the completion of the entire WTC rebuilding off like 15 or 20 years. No way Larry's going to agree to that."
I hope Larry gives'em all the hell he can at this point....
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  #609  
Old Posted Apr 16, 2009, 6:45 AM
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^^^ Sure !

Come on Larry !!!!
     
     
  #610  
Old Posted Apr 16, 2009, 8:36 AM
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Sad. I live in Cleveland and look forwards to my trip to NYC and this is one of those years. I hope all comes together or in a small way Al-Qaeda wins just by exposing the American system for a trippy mess. Please just keep building. The tenants will come...sigh!
     
     
  #611  
Old Posted Apr 16, 2009, 12:24 PM
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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009...r_911__pa.html

World Trade Center project won't be finished until 36 years after 9/11 - PA

BY Douglas Feiden
April 16th 2009

The World Trade Center won't be fully rebuilt and occupied until 2037 - a full 36 years after terrorists reduced it to rubble, a new study says.

The endless delays that have plagued the site since 9/11 could drag on, pushing back the project's completion nearly a generation, said a marketing analysis prepared for the Port Authority and obtained by the Daily News.

Drafted by real estate titan Cushman & Wakefield, the study predicts that the site's centerpiece, the Port Authority's 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, won't be filled with tenants until 2019. Other troubling findings included:

- It could take 12 years to fully lease Silverstein's Tower 2, a 79-story, 1,270-foot giant that will be taller than the Empire State Building. It could be finished in 2014, but it won't be filled until 2026.

- Construction wouldn't even begin until 2026 on Tower 3, a 71-story, 1,137-foot colossus that will climb higher than the Chrysler Building. Ribbon-cutting would come in 2030 and full leasing in 2037.


The survey, the gloomiest of several studies commissioned by the agency, based its projections on anticipated market demand for office space at the 16-acre site. It comes amid contentious talks between the PA and developer Larry Silverstein that threaten to unravel plans for his three signature office towers on Church St.

The builder and his landlord have been negotiating the financing and timetables of an emotionally charged project that's already years behind schedule and billions over budget.

The Port Authority calls the study a "market-driven analysis," not an agency proposal, but Silverstein's organization differed with the dour outlook.

"The Port Authority's position seems to be based on a totally pessimistic attitude about New York's economic future," said Janno Lieber, director of Silverstein's World Trade Center redevelopment effort.

"Our view is that New York will bounce back strongly over the next five years while we are building these buildings."

In a direct shot at the PA, Liber added, "Nobody at Silverstein is ever going to give up on New York. The city desperately needs the 30,000 jobs that building these towers will provide - right now."


PA spokeswoman Candace McAdams said the Agency is seeking a realistic forecast.

"The Port Authority's obligation is to rebuild the site in the public interest based on the economic reality today," McAdams said. "That starts with keeping the memorial and the other public infrastructure on the time line and budget we've committed to. It extends to building the right amount of office space to meet what is now a very different market downtown."

The latest budget-busting delays come with Wall Street jobs evaporating, credit markets shuttered and financial firms imperiled.

Since Silverstein couldn't swing the financing in a distressed economy, he asked the PA to help finance two of the towers.

The agency nixed that bid, but in a counteroffer, said it would kick in cash for just one of the three buildings and hold off construction on the other two until an economic rebound justifies rebuilding.

____________________________

Again, contrast that study with this one...
http://aux.zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu/n...wntown2020.pdf
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  #612  
Old Posted Apr 16, 2009, 2:00 PM
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jesus christ, this needs a headline on CNN or something, people need to know about this
     
     
  #613  
Old Posted Apr 16, 2009, 3:10 PM
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woah... the PA will regret this!! LMAO
     
     
  #614  
Old Posted Apr 16, 2009, 3:23 PM
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What a disgrace.
     
     
  #615  
Old Posted Apr 16, 2009, 5:08 PM
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I hear laughter...the laughter of Osama Binladen and his crooks. A groundzero site that stands empty for 36 years would only be a monument to Al Qeida and Bin Laden. How come the PA doesn't understand that.

Either they build towers 1,2,3 and 4 or the terrorist win.

IMHO if the PA suspends construction they should be charged with treason for humiliating the United States Of America.
     
     
  #616  
Old Posted Apr 16, 2009, 5:45 PM
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Thanks Pataki.






     
     
  #617  
Old Posted Apr 16, 2009, 5:54 PM
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http://www.wtc.com/news/critics-in-d...wntown-reality

Critics in Denial on Downtown Reality

By Steve Cuozzo
April 16, 2009
NY Post

As Larry Silverstein, the Port Authority and urban-policy sages duke it out over the pace of World Trade Center rebuilding, let us take note of a remarkable fact: Downtown Manhattan today is the strongest office market in the United States in terms of vacancy rate, according to data to be released today by real-estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. Stronger than Midtown. Stronger than cities like Chicago and Los Angeles that are widely, but mistakenly, believed to be better insulated from ongoing financial shocks.

But those financially reluctant or philosophically opposed to rebuilding a new World Trade Center not only refuse (like the churchmen in Brecht's "Life of Galileo," who insisted that the sun revolved around the Earth) to "look through the telescope" -- they won't even take a walk around the neighborhood. In fact, Cushman reports, vacancies in the Wall Street area's 88 million square feet are a mere 8.1 percent -- a tie with Midtown South's 65 million square feet. (The overall city office vacancy rate is 9.6 percent, owing to slightly higher availability in Midtown; the national average in large cities is 12.5 percent.)

In other words, while financial upheaval might, someday, leave Downtown begging for tenants, the place is doing embarrassingly well right now. "Embarrassingly" is the right word because so many supposed experts perceive only catastrophe -- not just in the long run, but just around the corner.

In the Times yesterday, Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward -- defending the authority's brainstorm to delay building two of Silverstein's planned towers to 2022 and 2030 respectively -- said, "We have to deal with the economic reality today." NYU urban-policy professor Mitchell Moss cited a "need to reconsider the original plan for 10 million square feet of office space" at the WTC site, due to the financial-services restructuring now under way. For sure, it's a harsh new world out there. Wall Street is in for short-term contraction far exceeding any previous cyclical downtown. Merrill Lynch and AIG will give up a lot of space, no question. And Goldman Sachs will leave several older buildings partly vacant when it moves to its new Battery Park City headquarters.

But Downtown rents are much lower than Midtown -- so what reason is there to fear that floors left behind won't soon be reoccupied, especially by non-financial companies? In fact, to insist that Downtown's office market faces an imminent wipeout is as dumb as it was to say that New York's days as the world's commercial capital were over for good after 9/11 -- which is precisely what many economists, sociologists and even some real-estate insiders said at the time.

There's a reason the PA wants to throw out its own "roadmap" for WTC rebuilding it released with great fanfare last October: The agency is locked in a brutal renegotiation with Silverstein over terms of financing the new office buildings -- and one of the simplest ways to squeeze the developer is to throw out the timetable to which he's committed. So the New Jersey-dominated PA says it doesn't want "unneeded" new office space opening by 2014, as called for under the original schedule. It's a curious position indeed -- given that it's spending more than $3 billion on a project for which there's no need in this or any year: a grandiose new PATH terminal to pamper a handful of Jersey commuters.

As landowner and leaseholder respectively, the PA and Silverstein are fated to suffer their tormented co-dependency until Kingdom come. Each has a legitimate case to reduce its risk, and it's easier to pity than to vilify either side. But trying to delay full rebuilding until 29 years after 9/11 on the grounds that Downtown is on the brink of turning into a ghost town is not only wrong, but demonstrably ridiculous. Other cities can only envy Downtown's breathtakingly healthy current condition as established by the Cushman & Wakefield numbers. The PA and its fellow-travelers in obstruction had better come up with a different argument.
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  #618  
Old Posted Apr 16, 2009, 5:54 PM
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awww jeez fuckkkkk and they had basicaly all the contractors for the job aswell for wtc1
     
     
  #619  
Old Posted Apr 17, 2009, 2:29 AM
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Originally Posted by uaarkson View Post
jesus christ, this needs a headline on CNN or something, people need to know about this
This isn't CNN worthy. What does it have to do with with foreign oil or Anna Nicole Smith? I mean, Brad Delp's suicide (lead singer of the band Boston) had minimal attention, and this is just a tiny little 20-25 year additional delay. An nobody pays any attention whatsoever to North Korean officials crushing the necks of infants born to dissident families.

I have reason to believe that the plan may be pushed back even further...to 2050, 2070...we may not be done rebuilding the site come 9/11/2101, and we are just going to have to live with it.

I already not exactly 100% like the replacement WTC and the process as it is...but the politicans can do what they want. They own the site, and they decide what is done when.

It does make me concerned about the economy, though. It makes me think of Gerald Celente's predictions for tax riots, revolution, and a Second Great Depression (worse than the first) by 2012. A 20-25 year delay would fit such a scenario...then again, it's just the politicians talking again.
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  #620  
Old Posted Apr 17, 2009, 2:39 AM
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http://downtownexpress.com/de_312/facingdecades.html

Facing decades of W.T.C. delay, Silverstein firm blasts Port

By Julie Shapiro
April 17 - 23, 2009

A Silverstein Properties executive slammed the Port Authority at a community meeting Monday night, an early public sign of what became an increasingly public battle as the week wore on. At the center of the battle is the suggestion that it could take a few decades to rebuild the World Trade Center.

On Monday night, Janno Lieber, president of Silverstein’s World Trade Center Properties, accused the Port of falling behind on its W.T.C. projects, including Greenwich St., a key corridor that will house utilities for the entire site. The infrastructure delays could force Tower 4, which Silverstein is building on the southeast corner of the site, to fall behind schedule, Lieber said.

“We’re trying to figure out if you can finish, open and operate a building given where they are in the infrastructure,” Lieber said.

The Port released new deadlines for key projects last fall, but Silverstein is still waiting for a detailed schedule that shows how those deadlines will be met. Lieber said it’s hard to trust the deadlines without seeing the plans behind them — especially, Lieber said, since a detailed schedule for the project does not even exist.

“They’ve got a contractor [Phoenix Constructors] who is still developing their own schedule and has not shared it with us or the Port Authority, to my knowledge,” Lieber told Community Board 1’s W.T.C. Redevelopment Committee. “We need to see the contractor’s schedule, we need to see their logistics plan, and we need to come to an agreement as professionals about the schedule implications of some of the construction issues the Port Authority continues to struggle with.”

Several Port Authority representatives attended the community board meeting and sat silently behind Lieber without offering an alternative view. The Port has released some quarterly milestones for the project, but only one quarter at a time, so it is impossible to trace the projects from start to finish and see how realistic the overall timeline is.

A source familiar with the W.T.C. project said the Port has never signed an overarching contract with Phoenix that includes a budget and timeline for the site’s major projects. Instead, the Port contracts with Phoenix on each individual piece of the project, paying for time and materials.

“It’s the most inefficient way you could possibly do anything,” the source said. The longer it takes the contractors to do a job, the more they get paid, the source said.

“It’s like the emperor’s new clothes,” the W.T.C. source added of the absence of a schedule, “but this is seven years after 9/11…. Larry [Silverstein] is absolutely frustrated.”

Steve Coleman, a Port spokesperson, said the Port is reviewing Phoenix’s long-term schedule and will share it with Silverstein once it is finalized later this year. He said the Port is focusing on keeping all the projects on schedule and on budget.

Transparency about deadlines is supposed to be a hallmark of the Port’s policy under executive director Chris Ward, but C.B. 1 members had a tough time getting straight answers out of the Port at the meeting Monday night.

Board members asked when the Liberty St. crossing of West St. would reopen at grade, when the Port would turn over the sites for Towers 2, 3 and 4 to Silverstein Properties and when the Vehicle Security Center would open — and each time they got vague answers.

“Can you bring your calendar with you to the next meeting?” Catherine McVay Hughes, chairperson of C.B. 1’s W.T.C. Redevelopment Committee, finally asked the Port representatives.

Lieber’s comments at the community board Monday came as details emerged of the financial battle Silverstein and the Port are fighting behind the scenes. The faltering economy has made it impossible for Silverstein to finance Towers 2, 3 and 4, which he is supposed to build along Church St. Silverstein wants the Port to serve as guarantor for the construction loans.

But the rebuilding source said the Port balked at the suggestion that they back Silverstein’s tower financing. The Port presented a counterproposal: The Port would help Silverstein build Tower 4 in exchange for a stake in the building, if Silverstein agreed to put Towers 2 and 3, which have no tenants, on hold.

Silverstein asked for a compromise: Put Tower 3 on hold and build Tower 2 now, since that would make it easier to coordinate with the construction of Greenwich St. and the memorial. The Port replied that under that deal, construction for Tower 3 would not start until Tower 2 was entirely leased, which the Port said would take until 2026. That means Tower 3 would not open until 2030. Under the same schedule, work on Tower 5, the Port’s oft-forgotten skyscraper on the south side of the side, would not begin until 2038, when Tower 3 was entirely leased, the source said.

The Port would not confirm these schedule proposals.

The sites for Towers 2 and 3 cannot remain empty pits for decades because they are supposed to house necessary infrastructure for the PATH hub, including plumbing and emergency exits. So the Port wants Silverstein to build the towers to grade now and add retail-filled podiums on top, which would later be replaced by the planned skyscrapers.

Silverstein, unsurprisingly, does not like the Port’s proposals to delay the towers and build podiums.

“If the Port Authority wants stumps, it means those stumps are there forever, and Larry will never agree to that,” the W.T.C. rebuilding source said.

The source pointed out that the Port Authority bus terminal in Midtown was supposed to eventually be topped by a skyscraper, but the current stump is all that was ever built.


“It’s the ugliest building in New York,” the source said.

The source said the Port Authority is partly to blame for Silverstein being unable to get financing. Had the Port turned the sites for the towers over to Silverstein on time, Silverstein would have sought loans earlier, when the economy was better, the source said.

The only tenants Silverstein has so far are for Tower 4, and they are the city and the Port Authority. But Lieber said all three towers are too important to wait for tenants to sign on, which could take years.

At a conference on Lower Manhattan’s future one week earlier, Larry Silverstein said the time to build his office towers is now, so they will be ready when the economy revives. He acknowledged that Downtown is seeing a glut of commercial space vacated by failing financial firms and banks are still not lending, but he said that extra space would get absorbed within three years.

Then, Towers 2, 3 and 4 “will come on line in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 here at the World Trade Center,” Silverstein said. “This is where the spatial needs for business…will come when the market comes back.”

If the Port Authority came through with the financial support and infrastructure Silverstein needs, Lieber said Silverstein could still get Towers 2, 3 and 4 open on that timeline.

“We could still do it,” Lieber told the community board this week.

One place Silverstein has been making rapid progress recently is at Tower 4, where the lowest subgrade level is nearly complete and concrete pouring on the other three levels is well underway. The Port recently finished clearing the western portion of the site and turned it over to Silverstein, Lieber said.

The Port also claims to have finished clearing the sites for Towers 2 and 3, but Lieber said this week that the sites need a couple months more work. Until the Port excavates the sites to Silverstein’s satisfaction, the Port will continue paying Silverstein a $300,000-a-day penalty.

With so much acrimony between the Port and Silverstein, regular meetings are becoming increasingly important. The Port created a steering committee comprised of the project stakeholders last June but stopped holding meetings at the end of the summer. After pressure from Silverstein and others, the Port resumed the stakeholder meetings last month and now plans to hold them quarterly.

After hearing from Lieber about his concerns Monday night, C.B. 1’s W.T.C. Committee passed a resolution asking the Port to release a detailed construction schedule by June 30, one year after the Port most recently disclosed that the project was behind schedule and over budget.

“We need another one-year reality check on what’s going on,” said Hughes, chairperson of the committee. “Sept. 11 was over seven-and-a-half years ago. The community has been patient for a very long time, walking around and through a very large construction site.”

The board has not taken a position on whether the Port should back the financing of Silverstein’s towers, and Hughes said she was wrestling with the concept of more public money going into the private towers, with substantial risk to the Port Authority.

“It’s really important that our neighborhood gets built back and we want to make sure there’s money to do it,” she said.
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