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NEW YORK CITY-The board of directors of the Liberty Development Corp. has approved a resolution to induce Liberty Bonds for the construction of Towers II, III and IV of the World Trade Center site. The amount of the state's inducement is $1.67 billion. In July, the city is expected to induce additional Liberty Bonds totaling nearly $921 million toward the construction.

"Today's action on the state's remaining Liberty Bonds is another step forward in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center," says a spokesperson for Silverstein Properties, the site's leaseholder. "We are working aggressively to design the three Greenwich Street towers and, with financing in place, will begin construction of those towers as soon as the sites are made available." A revised ground lease is in the process of being negotiated by Silverstein and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site.

"This announcement marks another huge step forward in the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan," adds Empire State Development chairman Charles A. Gargano. "We expect that this inducement will not only help leaseholder Larry A. Silverstein finalize the balance of his financing, but will facilitate the expenditure of funds at the World Trade Center site and accelerate real progress of construction."

Towers II, III and IV will contain a total of 6.2 million sf of space on 185 floors. The total project cost is estimated to be $4.38 billion; approximately $2.6 billion will come from the Liberty Bond Program. Insurance proceeds and conventional financing will complete the financing package. The proposed construction start date for Towers III and IV is the second half of 2007 and the second half of 2008 for Tower II.

Lord Richard Rogers was named to design 175 Greenwich St. (Tower 3). Fumihiko Maki of Japan will design 150 Greenwich St. (Tower 4). Both towers also will accommodate approximately five floors of retail space at and above street level and as part of an underground concourse linking to the WTC Transportation Hub.

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