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  #3541  
Old Posted Mar 12, 2014, 11:55 AM
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That's what they say.........
As long as that stub of a tower crane stays on the site I will assume things will eventually move forward. Those things aren't cheap to rent, so someone is betting it won't be sitting idle for long.
     
     
  #3542  
Old Posted Mar 12, 2014, 5:57 PM
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That's what they say.........
Are you sure? Is going to start construction sometime this summer?
     
     
  #3543  
Old Posted Mar 17, 2014, 4:12 AM
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Developer’s Skyscraper Is Focus of Latest Dispute at Rebuilt Trade Center

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/ny...&rref=nyregion


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One World Trade Center, the nation’s tallest skyscraper, is nearing completion, as is a $4 billion transit hub and the Sept. 11 museum. The memorial park is finished and a second office tower, built by the developer Larry A. Silverstein, is open, if not occupied.

But the 11-member board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is sharply divided over whether to double the level of subsidies and support for another Silverstein building, a long-stalled $2.3 billion office tower, at the 16-acre site.

The dispute, which pits one appointee of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo against another, will come up for a vote Wednesday. This is only the latest fracas involving money, the future of the downtown district, the level of public investments and the symbolic value of closing some of the wounds opened by the terrorist attack.

Proponents, led by Mr. Silverstein and Scott H. Rechler, the authority’s vice chairman, contend that the tower, 3 World Trade Center, would essentially mark the completion of the new trade center and spur the continuing transformation of Lower Manhattan into a vibrant, 24-hour commercial and residential district no longer reliant on the financial industry.

Critics argue that it makes no sense to subsidize another downtown office tower with plenty of vacant space that would compete for tenants with other nearby buildings and the Port Authority’s own, half-empty tower at 1 World Trade Center, one of the world’s most expensive skyscrapers.

Kenneth Lipper, a Port Authority commissioner and an investment banker, said that Mr. Rechler’s proposal to guarantee up to $1.2 billion in construction loans for Mr. Silverstein could hurt the authority’s credit rating and even its budget, which is partly reliant on bridge and tunnel tolls.

“The idea of giving a $1.2 billion subsidy to a private developer at a time when the market downtown is in a state of glut defies the public interest and the economic interest,” said Mr. Lipper, a former New York City deputy mayor. “It would turn a patriotic gesture into a vanity project. And it could jeopardize our mission, which is to improve the transportation system in the region.”

Rebuilding the trade center and Lower Manhattan has been an enormous undertaking, with $20 billion alone coming from the federal government. The Port Authority, a bistate agency focused on transportation, has also invested billions.

Leaving aside the memorial, the transit hub and the cultural center, officials sought from the beginning to avoid the mistakes of the original World Trade Center, which opened 10 million square feet of office space during a weak market in the 1970s. Unable to lure corporate tenants, officials had to stock the towers for more than a decade with government agencies.

Only weeks before the complex was destroyed in 2001, Mr. Silverstein had signed a deal valued at $3.2 billion to lease the entire complex for 99 years.

After the attacks, he steadfastly insisted that he was the best person to rebuild ground zero and led a lengthy legal fight to recover $4.5 billion in insurance proceeds.

But his penchant for endless negotiations often left him at odds with city, state and Port Authority officials. In 2006, he surrendered control of what is now known as 1 World Trade Center and more than one-third of the site. But he retained the right to build three office towers.

Continue reading the main story
“He’s playing with the house’s money and, nothing wrong with that, but let’s not feel too bad here,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at the time, referring to the fact that Mr. Silverstein had little of his own money at stake.

Another long deadlock ended in 2010 when the Port Authority agreed to provide about $1 billion in financing, along with insurance money and tax breaks, for his first office tower, 4 World Trade Center, which was completed last November.

But officials wanted the developer to invest more of his own money and to avoid building empty towers.

Under the agreement, the authority, the city and the state agreed to provide Mr. Silverstein with up to $600 million in assistance for 3 World Trade Center if he secured a tenant for at least 400,000 of the 2.5-million-square-foot tower and raised $300 million in cash.

If he failed to meet those conditions, he was to cap the building at about seven stories, until he found a large tenant and private financing. His third tower would wait until there was enough demand to justify construction.

Port Authority commissioners are now at odds over whether to renegotiate the deal with Mr. Silverstein, again.

In late December, Mr. Silverstein met one of the conditions of the current deal. GroupM, an advertising company, agreed to lease 516,000 square feet, or roughly one-fifth of the 72-story tower.

Although rents downtown are generally 20 to 30 percent cheaper than in Midtown, GroupM qualified for special tax breaks at the trade center worth about $75 million. In addition, state and city officials agreed to give GroupM $15 million.

But Mr. Silverstein could not obtain financing for the project. Lenders today usually want 50 percent of the building leased before they are willing to lend money.

Eager to get the building up, Mr. Rechler, the authority’s vice chairman, crafted a proposal with the developers’ advisers at Goldman Sachs: The Port Authority would guarantee a $1.2 billion construction loan — half the cost of the building, and double the previous commitment — for Mr. Silverstein. That essentially promises Mr. Silverstein’s lenders that the authority would pay the loan if he could not. The developer would also have the use of $1.3 billion in tax-exempt bonds, which can be attractive to investors.

In return, Mr. Silverstein would have to put up about $450 million in cash and, unlike the old deal, pay interest and fees to the authority, which would also have to right to foreclose if Mr. Silverstein defaulted on his payments for the $1.2 billion loan.

Mr. Rechler, the chairman of RXR Realty, told commissioners that his proposed deal put the Port Authority in a better financial position. After he develops 3 World Trade Center, Mr. Silverstein will begin paying rent to the authority on the land underneath it, and another developer will be able to compete for the retail elements of the project. It will not, Mr. Rechler said, affect the authority’s budgets.

“We need to build it out,” Mr. Rechler said. “There’s a tenant that would enhance the transformation of Lower Manhattan beyond the financial sector. To let it go would stunt the momentum.”

But Mr. Silverstein’s second tower would be competing for tenants with the authority’s own $3 billion tower, where there is over 1.5 million square feet available, as well as 1 million square feet at the developer’s first tower, 1.5 million square feet at Chase Manhattan Plaza and 2 million square feet at nearby Brookfield Place. The authority has not been able to find a large tenant since 2011, when it signed a lease with Condé Nast Publications.

Mr. Lipper and several other commissioners opposed to the new guarantee say they, too, want to see 3 World Trade Center completed. “It’s not a question of whether to build it,” Mr. Lipper said. “We’re only talking about timing and who’s going to pay for it, the public or the private sector. I want to finance it consistent with our mission, regional transportation.”

Last edited by NYguy; Mar 17, 2014 at 7:39 AM.
     
     
  #3544  
Old Posted Mar 17, 2014, 7:43 AM
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The dispute, which pits one appointee of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo against another, will come up for a vote Wednesday.

Proponents, led by Mr. Silverstein and Scott H. Rechler, the authority’s vice chairman, contend that the tower, 3 World Trade Center, would essentially mark the completion of the new trade center and spur the continuing transformation of Lower Manhattan into a vibrant, 24-hour commercial and residential district no longer reliant on the financial industry.

Critics argue that it makes no sense to subsidize another downtown office tower with plenty of vacant space that would compete for tenants with other nearby buildings and the Port Authority’s own, half-empty tower at 1 World Trade Center, one of the world’s most expensive skyscrapers.

Kenneth Lipper, a Port Authority commissioner and an investment banker, said that Mr. Rechler’s proposal to guarantee up to $1.2 billion in construction loans for Mr. Silverstein could hurt the authority’s credit rating and even its budget, which is partly reliant on bridge and tunnel tolls.

“The idea of giving a $1.2 billion subsidy to a private developer at a time when the market downtown is in a state of glut defies the public interest and the economic interest,” said Mr. Lipper, a former New York City deputy mayor. “It would turn a patriotic gesture into a vanity project. And it could jeopardize our mission, which is to improve the transportation system in the region.”


I was thinking about the "good old days" of WTC fighting, but it seems there is still some fight left in the gang afterall. Cuomo will resolve this. He's running for re-election, and doesn't want another WTC mess on his hands.
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  #3545  
Old Posted Mar 18, 2014, 7:22 AM
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http://nypost.com/2014/03/17/blockin...al-a-bad-idea/

Blocking 3 World Trade Center deal a bad idea


By Steve Cuozzo
March 17, 2014


Quote:
.....the hard-earned, charging-rhino momentum could be cut down in its tracks by short-sighted resistance to restructuring a financing agreement between the Port Authority and Larry Silverstein for 3 World Trade Center. The planned 80-story skyscraper has risen to a 7-story “podium” height. Silverstein has already signed major global media company GroupM to a more than half-million-square-foot lease worth $800 million over 20 years.

But in a constricted lending market, he hasn’t yet secured a construction loan for the tower portion of the 2.5 million-square-foot, $2.8 billion project — so the PA and the developer are working out a deal that will make it easier for Silverstein to borrow while simultaneously bring the cash-strapped PA more revenue, both short- and long-term.

Hoping to block the deal — which is to be voted on by the PA board as early as Wednesday — PA commissioner Ken Lipper invoked the dreaded “G”-word.

That of course means “glut,” as in this statement he made to the New York Times on Monday.

.....But it’s impossible to see how the agency could benefit from turning back the clock at the WTC to the go-nowhere years after 9/11. The PA since then has invested a fortune in helping to create a new complex attuned to 21st Century business needs, a strategy that’s already drawn Condé Nast from uptown.

What signal would be sent now by an unfinished, empty, 7-story stump amidst nearly completed 1 and 4 WTC and the Santiago Calatrava-designed Transportation Hub?

PA vice-chairman Scott Rechler — like Lipper, an appointee of Gov. Andrew Cuomo — is also a distinguished real estate pro. And his position that the deal Silverstein wants is a boon to the PA seems more attuned to the realities of the WTC site.

What’s wrong with Lipper’s premise? Just about everything.

For starters, the “subsidy” Silverstein wants isn’t a dime out of the PA’s pocket. The PA has successfully restructured several major WTC deals in the past few years, including with site retail operator Westfield America, and the one it’s considering with Silverstein is as much in its own interests as were the others.

It would replace a previous $600 million “backstop” for Silverstein at 3 WTC — a combination of PA, city and state contributions toward construction and to subsidize interest and operating expenses — with a credit enhancement in the form of a $1.2 billion PA guarantee of the senior portion of a construction loan. It would not be a gift, but a sensible trade-off for significant concessions by the developer. One concession is increasing the equity he must put in — to $450 million from $300 million.

Also, if the tower isn’t built to its full height, the agency stands to lose a fortune on ground rent to be paid in perpetuity. Sources said Silverstein currently pays only around $5 million a year, but the rent will double when construction begins and rise to $25 million when the project is completed.

Failure to build above the podium would also cost the PA $130.6 million it’s due to collect from retail mall operator Westfield America, which last year bought out the PA’s stake in all of the WTC’s store space. Westfield is obligated to pay “upon delivery” of 3 WTC’s 180,000 square feet of retail — but not if the tower above is in limbo.

As for Lipper’s “glut,” it’s a crock. The downtown leasing market enjoyed a banner 2013. Today’s reasonable 12.2 percent “availability” rate is due mainly to counting leases due to expire in the next 12 months. Actual vacancy is a mere 10.7 percent, according to CBRE.

In the past five years, former Midtown tenants have claimed 7 million square feet downtown. Of last year’s 6 million square feet of leasing, half was accounted for by relocations from uptown. Four new leases of more than 200,000 square feet each were signed in the last quarter of 2013 alone.

The GroupM deal’s the icing on the cake, but it would be a catastrophe for downtown, and for the whole WTC, if the firm can’t move to 3 WTC because it wasn’t built.

In a letter to PA executive director Pat Foye on Monday, Downtown Alliance chairman Robert Douglass and president Jessica Lappin warned that if GroupM can’t move to 3 WTC, “it could discourage potential tenants or brokers from investing in complex and sizable transactions at the site in the future.”

GroupM couldn’t simply switch to 1 WTC (owned by the PA and the Durst Organization) or to Silverstein’s 4 WTC. GroupM chose 3 WTC specifically for its enormous floor plates and infrastructure to support them. If it can’t go there, it will seek out another new tower built to its exacting specifications at Hudson Yards or Manhattan West uptown.

GroupM’s dependence on 3 WTC illustrates how the tower won’t compete with the other two at all,
the Times’ assertion to the contrary. Already more than half-leased, 1 WTC will likely be full within a year. And while 4 WTC has yet to land a private-sector tenant, it surely will by the time 3 WTC can be completed nearly four years from now, in late 2017.

Cuomo’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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  #3546  
Old Posted Mar 18, 2014, 2:45 PM
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The article is right. Give the guy the damn money and build this freaking tower already. It would be a horrible embarrassment and disgrace if Group M has to go else where because of this. This tower NEEDS to go up. By the time it would be done all that would be left to complete is 2WTC and the PAC...it will essentially complete the site besides 2. "If you build they will come" nobody wants to work at an active construction zone. These towers don't go up...they won't get filled. Point blank. Fingers crossed the board is a smart and vote yes to build!
     
     
  #3547  
Old Posted Mar 18, 2014, 3:41 PM
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Normally I would agree - the state shouldn't be involved in subsidizing commercial space (though the disastrous Port Authority shouldn't be involved in much of anything) but in this case, I feel it would be an even bigger waste of money to let the WTC3 deal fall through after all that has been put into this site. Give them the financing and be done with it.
     
     
  #3548  
Old Posted Mar 19, 2014, 3:52 AM
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  #3549  
Old Posted Mar 19, 2014, 7:22 PM
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  #3550  
Old Posted Mar 19, 2014, 8:15 PM
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What else is knew? Delays delays and more delays. Hopefully good news in April.
     
     
  #3551  
Old Posted Mar 19, 2014, 8:27 PM
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^^^^

Better to do it right I guess. Man, this is taking so long to get going.
     
     
  #3552  
Old Posted Mar 19, 2014, 9:02 PM
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  #3553  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2014, 12:32 AM
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Not really a dealy, there's a process to determining what the PA will do. Considering all of the crap currently going on with the agency...


http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...ower-financing

Port Authority to Vote Next Month on World Trade Tower Financing

By David M. Levitt
March 19, 2014


Quote:
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey held talks about financing to help developer Larry Silverstein build 3 World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, and its vice chairman said a decision will be made next month.

In private, the agency discussed a plan advocated by Vice Chairman Scott Rechler to guarantee $1.2 billion of financing to Silverstein for the planned 2.5 million-square-foot (232,000-square-meter) tower. Rechler, speaking after the meeting in Jersey City, New Jersey, said he spent the session “educating” his fellow commissioners about the proposal and that they intend to vote on it in April.

“The board had a whole bunch of information supplied to them today,” Rechler said in a brief interview. “And it’s appropriate to have them have a chance to reflect on it and digest it.”

.....Under the current plan, Silverstein would be entitled to a total of $600 million in cash assistance, from the city and state as well as the Port Authority. The Rechler proposal would require the developer to raise his equity and mezzanine-debt stake to $450 million from $300 million. Under the plan, the $1.2 billion guarantee would apply only in case of default.
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  #3554  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2014, 6:00 AM
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What else is knew? Delays delays and more delays. Hopefully good news in April.
Please! No more delays. Enough already! Let build the WTC now!
     
     
  #3555  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2014, 10:49 PM
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Please! No more delays. Enough already! Let build the WTC now!
Cuomo will resolve it internally. He can't afford any more embarrassments from the Port Authority. At the same time, it can't look like the PA is just throwing money away, which they really wouldn't be doing anyway, they're not giving Silverstein any money.
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  #3556  
Old Posted Mar 22, 2014, 1:38 PM
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I wish Silverstein would just make wtc2 and 3 mixed use, they would have so much less lease space to worry about. I don't know if it's possible, but I know that other towers downtown have converted offices to residences.
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  #3557  
Old Posted Mar 22, 2014, 2:35 PM
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I wish Silverstein would just make wtc2 and 3 mixed use, they would have so much less lease space to worry about. I don't know if it's possible, but I know that other towers downtown have converted offices to residences.
Too logical, no logic is allowed in the rebuilding process, the whole thing needs to be as dysfunctional and make as little sense as possible it seems.
     
     
  #3558  
Old Posted Mar 22, 2014, 5:54 PM
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All of these complications further convince me that a one-shot construction project, one like Ken Gardner's proposed Twin Towers II, would have been a better choice for the site; the entire WTC might have been long since completed by now. When you partition the complex into these independent parcels, there is too much room for complications, delays, and failures.

I sincerely hope that 3WTC rises in time for Group M's occupation, but even then, there's 2WTC, 5WTC, and the PAC to indefinitely wait for, and it has already been over 13 years.
     
     
  #3559  
Old Posted Mar 22, 2014, 5:57 PM
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Too logical, no logic is allowed in the rebuilding process, the whole thing needs to be as dysfunctional and make as little sense as possible it seems.
I think making it mixed used would require modifications to the tower. Since it was designed to be an office tower, making it other than for offices would require some modifications. I remember hearing something related to that. But yea I do agree that this whole rebuilding process has been one giant mess. Hudson Yards phase 1 will probably be all finished before this goes up( including WTC2). At least in Midtown they know how to get stuff done.
     
     
  #3560  
Old Posted Mar 22, 2014, 7:29 PM
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