April 25, 2006
Silverstein Says Yes to Port Authority's Deal
Wow, this is the happiest we've ever seen World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein, pictured here with Silverstein Properties vice president Janno Lieber, after announcing that he will accept the Port Authority's deal (ultimatum) over the development of Ground Zero. (Usually, in photographs, you can tell he's not the happiest camper.) There are still a couple "logistical issues" for Silverstein and the Port Authority to work out, but he has agreed to the recent proposal of (1) giving the Port Authority control of Freedom Tower - though Silverstein gets to build it; (2) control of three additional buildings along Church Street, (3) building a mall (co-designed with the PA) with an opportunity to buy the mall later, and (4) taking a lower developer's fee.
Silverstein said, "This is not about profits. This is about moving the rebuilding forward as quickly as possible in order to revitalize the city's historic downtown." Profits, schmofits - it's about egos, really. Anyway, he must be relieved that now he will be less vilified and that Pataki can be left to take the fall for any mess-ups.
Photograph from the AP
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Gothamist: [Silverstein] has agreed to the recent proposal of (1) giving the Port Authority control of Freedom Tower - though Silverstein gets to build it;
NY Times: Under the new agreement, Mr. Silverstein . . . would cede responsibility for building the Freedom Tower, . . . to the authority.
Come on Gothamist, get it right.
Reading between the lines of Silverstein's comments I saw, "This is not about profits. This is about a lot of profits. Since I caved in I will hopefully look like less of an asshole when I put up crappy ugly buildings."
It may be that larry and george performed some sleight of hand amongst this week's drama. I saw a picture on ny-1 of the new plans for the wtc site. I only saw a few seconds of it and maybe I'm wrong, but it looked like some of the interesting architecture had disappeared and some of the dumpy generic buildings had re-appeared in the plans. Will be interesting to see what surfaces in tommorrows paper. Where's the new Jane Jacobs.