Buildings
Silverstein Accepts Deal on Ground Zero
(archrecord.construction.com - 04/26/2006)
By Sam
Lubell
After weeks of stalled negotiations,
New York developer Larry Silverstein has accepted a deal with
the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PA) regarding
development rights at Ground Zero. Under the agreement, Silverstein
will develop three of the five buildings planned for the World
Trade Center site, but will cede rights to the 1,776-foot
Freedom Tower, which he will still build.
He has also given up rights to Tower
5, much of the $2.9 billion in insurance proceeds he is expected
to collect, as well as millions of dollars in tax-free New
York State Liberty Bonds. Silverstein obtained his lease to
the towers from the PA just two months before the September
11 terrorist attacks.
"Failure is not an option here.
We need to get this done now,” said Silverstein at a
press conference yesterday. “We owe it to the people
of New York who are tired of seeing a hole in the ground where
the World Trade Center once stood."
Silverstein and the PA had been discussing
the deal for several months. New York Governor George Pataki
had set a March 14 deadline for the parties to resolve the
issue, but state officials walked out of talks just before
the deadline.
A recently released city report claimed
that Silverstein would likely run out of money and default
on his lease after building only two out of Ground Zero’s
five planned towers. Silverstein’s office called the
analysis “misleading and at times outright wrong.”
It has now been almost five years since
9/11 and construction is still barely underway at Ground Zero.
Silverstein spokesperson Bud Perrone says that once a formal
agreement is reached construction on the Freedom Tower can
begin within days.
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