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Early Addition
Governor Pataki, you can kiss your April "Freedom Tower" groundbreaking goodbye: Talks between World Trade Center leaseholder, the developer Larry Silverstein, and the Port Authority (WTC owner) went nowhere yesterday, as the deadline to . So enter the namecalling: Tthe PA calling Silverstein greedy and Silverstein saying that the PA "elected to suspend talks." The Times reports that talks "nearly blew up" many times during the waning hours of negotiating time (the deadline was 12:00AM), while the Post explains how the talks went:
The PA and Silverstein spent much of the day negotiating - until both sides took a break at 6 p.m. with an outline on the table that called for the developer to assume control of Towers 2, 3 and 4 on Church Street, officials said.The city had said it would consider giving Silverstein more money in Liberty Bonds (which he's wanted) if he could work things out with the Port Authority, but who knows now? And another concern is that it will be hard to finds tenants for Freedom Tower. Um, isn't that what people have been wondering about all along? This whole mess roils our stomach, because it just seems too full of the worst combination of factors for decision-making: Money, politics and real estate.Silverstein would also have gotten control of the state's $1.3 billion share of tax-exempt Liberty Bonds and receive a rent reduction from the PA. In turn, the PA would have developed the much-riskier 1,776-foot Freedom Tower and a fifth building south of the site on Liberty Street, officials said.
But Silverstein returned to the negotiating table at 11:30 p.m. - some 51/2 hours later - with a revamped plan that called on the PA to bear all the risks of building the skyscrapers, including any cost overruns, officials said.
Some other numbers: Silverstein's 99 year lease is worth $3.2 billion; his monthly rent on the WTC is $10 million; he was award $4.6 billion in insurance after September 11, but it's still unresolved how much of that he will get. And keep this in mind: Whoever becomes the new NY governor will relook at the whole project, so we'll probably having a construction site down there for decades. Gah.
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Maybe it's about time we started calling things as they are:
Larry Silverstein is an evil, greedy f***.
George Pataki is just dumb, dumb, dumb, and can't see what these people are all about.
The families are shrouded in their grief to the point that they can't see the bigger picture.
The Port Authority is timid, too timid to exert control over land that they own.
Put 'em together and what have you got? A big friggin' hole in the ground that dishonors the dead, the survivors, and the city.
Their shame should know no bounds. But of course, it doesn't.
I vcant' ujjnderstamsd the teRrribls writnting.
Don't forget Dan Doctoroff in your list of greedy villians. He spoon-fed Bloomberg a questionable analysis that would essentially give Doctoroff an easy way to get new luxury apartments built, and he will profit. Unfortunately, Bloomberg believes everything his beloved Doctoroff says.
The problem is that none of the people involved in the whole thing have any sweeping vision and like to hire hack architects who design crap that looks like some crushed metal box you would find in a recycling bin.
One of two things should be done:
1. Leave things as is. I think the big hole in the ground is a hell of a lot better that that joke of a memorial the families hate or the horrid Freedom Tower. Every time I take PATH to the WTC station I get chills because I know this isn't right and should not be seeing daylight.
2. Rebuild the Twin Towers. Fix the hole left in the skyline and build something that is a visible memorial. Amazingly Donald Trump was right on this one.
We have to hire Baron von Frankenstein to reanimate the rotting corpse of Robert Moses, who will get everyone in a room, knock heads, and build up the site by the end of 2008, early 2009.
www.forgotten-ny.com