More Ground Zero Shennanigans
At this point, I’m about to scream out of frustration:
Talks to resolve the fate of ground zero broke down last night shortly before midnight when a last-minute counterproposal from Larry A. Silverstein, the developer of the site, caused state officials to accuse him of negotiating in bad faith.
Gov. George E. Pataki had given Mr. Silverstein, the developer who holds the lease for the World Trade Center site, until yesterday to work out a series of disputes with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the property, over the development of the 16-acre parcel. Governor Pataki was eager to put the disputes to rest in time for an April groundbreaking for the $2.3 billion Freedom Tower.
Charles A. Gargano, vice chairman of the Port Authority and New York’s chief economic development official, said that earlier in the evening, state officials had thought there was a framework for an agreement that would have settled who would build what, and when, on the trade center site.
He said that the state and the Port Authority had made a number of concessions of regarding Mr. Silverstein’s rent, his use of Liberty Bonds and the authority’s willingness to take over development of the Freedom Tower, the largest, most symbolic skyscraper to be built at ground zero.
“We are terribly disappointed,” Mr. Gargano said “We thought we were negotiating in good faith. He clearly demonstrated that greed is his main motivation. Unless we get this right, we will walk away rather than make a bad deal for the Port Authority, the city and the nation.”
He said that no new bargaining sessions had been scheduled. In all likelihood, the impasse will cause a delay in the groundbreaking for the Freedom Tower.
Ten months ago I made a proposal regarding Ground Zero. It’s wildly impractical, and incredibly naive – but it sure beats the status quo…
Silverstein’s just another real estate necromancer, preying on the debris of human history in order to make a buck. First he torpedoed Liebskind’s brilliant and subtle design because it didn’t maximize his revenue capability – then he sued his insurer to try to make the claim that he deserved a double payout because the disaster was “man – made.” He follows up that action by helping Soros and his minions partially foot the bill through their ill – conceived construction of the Freedom Center, etc.
No doubt that Pataki made many whoppers here as well, but this guy makes the characters in Mamet’s Glenn Gerry Glenn Ross look like proverbial choirboys by comparison.
Back in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11th, I recall Silverstein proposed replacing the towers with four 50-story buildings. In short, he looked upon it as a purely commercial move. Shorter buildings would probably be more attractive to tenants, they could be built in stages to accommodate demand as it grew, etc. I couldn’t really fault him for what was probably the smartest economic move.
But as much as I’m a hardcore capitalist, I also recognize there are times and places where simply doing what the economic textbook would recommend just doesn’t make sense. His property has been turned into the equivalent of a little piece of Gettysburg in downtown Manhattan. I agree the nation should buy him out, just as it bought up property at all those Civil War and Revolutionary War battlefields.
I think it’s a shame that he doesn’t really see the need to build something much grander than what was destroyed, but admittedly it’s not my money that I’m telling him to spend. So I think we should make it our money by buying it.
Yeah, that was Pataki’s greatest failure in this project – if he had moved quickly, it may have happened.