Further sweetening the pot for China Center will be savings of $5 per square foot, or around $850,000 annually for the next 15 years, thanks to the Empire State Development Corp.'s WTC rent reduction program. "We awarded our WTC Rent Reduction to Vantone yesterday with a formal notification letter," an ESDC spokesman tells GlobeSt.com. He adds that the state-funded program provides rent reductions for commercial tenants signing leases representing the first 750,000 square feet of space at each of the WTC towers. The Port Authority's board voted earlier this year to authorize a total of $61 million in rent credits through the program.

Also, the economic development arm of the Partnership for New York City, the New York City Investment Fund committed up to $3 million in funding to support the China Center. The Investment Fund worked with Vantone to gain the support of the Chinese government for one of the first authorized offshore real-estate investments, according to a release.

As reported in GlobeSt.com, the Port Authority had first authorized a lease for Vantone last June, entailing five mid-level contiguous floors in the future 1 WTC tower. As with the lease approved by the authority on Thursday, terms included an option to lease an additional two contiguous floors at the same price. Changes to the initial agreement include an additional 1,372 rentable square feet of office space on a portion of the adjacent transfer floor and inclusion of above-grade mechanical space. In addition, according to Port Authroity documents, "certain termination rights would be added to the lease terms that favor both parties. And, in lieu of One World Trade Center LLC's obligation to pay money damages in the event of substantial delays in turning over the leased premises to China Center, additional periods of free rent will be provided."

Beijing Vantone was founded in 1993. In 2004, the company partnered with the large, state owned Tianjin Teda Group and evolved into the largest real estate investment company in Beijing.

In a Port Authority statement, Vantone chairman Lun Feng says the company is "thrilled to have a finalized agreement with the Port Authority and are honored to be the first private company to sign on as a tenant in the United States most important development project."