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WTC Summit Leads to June 11 Deadline

NEW YORK CITY-Stakeholders in Ground Zero redevelopment have three weeks to work out a compromise plan for how many towers will be built there.

By Paul Bubny | Updated on May 22, 2009

NEW YORK CITY-Key stakeholders in the World Trade Center redevelopment, which has reached an impasse, have until June 11 to come up with a compromise on how many towers will be built there and how they’ll be financed, according to published reports. The agreement to work out a compromise, which entails closed-door negotiations and a media blackout, was the outcome of a summit held Thursday afternoon at Gracie Mansion.

Prompted by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s May 8 call for a meeting of the key stakeholders–including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, developer Silverstein Properties Inc. and the governors of New York and New Jersey–Mayor Michael Bloomberg arranged Thursday’s closed-door sit-down. Following the meeting, Bloomberg told reporters, “We cannot allow this to not get done. It is intolerable to leave this hole in the ground.”

However, Bloomberg reportedly added, “Private development should be fundamentally backed by private capital.” He was referring to one of the key disagreements that has threatened forward movement at Ground Zero: the question of whether the Port Authority should help SPI finance two or more of the towers it plans to build. The authority has already committed to helping finance SPI’s Tower 4, where the bi-state agency will be headquartered. SPI has sought the authority’s assistance in backstopping construction financing on at least one more tower as the credit markets remain largely frozen for large-scale projects. The developer has reportedly offered to delay construction on the third tower.

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