China Center Hits Skids at 7 WTC

NEW YORK CITY-Perhaps isn’t going to be as easy as first thought at 7 World Trade Center. The first large-scale tenant in negotiations to occupy space in the building, Beijing Vantone Real Estate Ltd., did not deliver a letter of credit on Monday, according to Silverstein Poperties, Inc., the building’s owner.

Originally, the company was to lease 200,000 sf, the top five floors of the 52-story building, for 15 years. According to a Larry Silverstein release, Monday was “the fourth time they missed an agreed deadline to post security.” Further more, Silverstein delivered a letter to Vantone’s New York rep saying, “After all of these missed deadlines, we no longer have confidence in your ability to fulfill the terms of the proposed lease transaction.”

In a statement released this afternoon, Xue Ya, executive director of the China Center, said, “Silverstein Properties unilaterally imposed deadlines to which we never agreed. We jointly signed a lease on June 30, subject only to a letter of credit. Our bank in China has had only one week to review the lease and we anticipate they will issue the letter of credit promptly. … We hope that the negative publicity generated by Silverstein today will not interfere with our abilities to secure our financing.”