Now 90 stories high, Foye said One World Trade Center is already 60% leased after the Port and its joint venture partner the Durst Organization secured Conde Nast as its first major anchor tenant. In addition, the Port will release a request for proposals later this month for an observation deck operator for the tower.

“We think that the One World Trade Center observation deck will be the leading observation deck experience in the world, period,” Foye told reporters. “We expect robust interest from companies in the United States and internationally. We think frankly it’s going to be a great thing for visitors to the World Trade Center whether they are New Yorkers getting off planes from Europe, Asia or South America. We are intent on making a financial success for the Port Authority and for creating a world-class experience.”

While work on the redevelopment site continues, questions over the lawfulness of a fare and toll hike on commuters to fund the World Trade Center construction came into question last summer. Both Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie directed the Port’s board of commissioners for a top-to-bottom review and audit of the Port’s operations and financial practices, including a review of the World Trade Center site, planning and spending, estimated cost of completion and schedule. Previous reports found that ex-Port chief Christopher O. Ward authorized “hundreds of millions” of cost overruns within the zone.

The governors have already directed an operation of core compensation practices along with a review of the Port’s long-term capital plan, Foye said. The first phase of the report is expected to be completed within the next few weeks, to be followed by a final report in mid-year 2012.

Foye said the review will be “extraordinarily positive” for the Port Authority and for the region. “It will provide a platform for reform and greater efficiency,” he said. “I think the Port Authority will benefit and so will the entire region," noting that the Port will return to its core mission of "infrastructure and economic development." Improvements at LaGuardia and Newark airports are in the works, he added.

From a statewide perspective, Foye praised Cuomo’s efforts to encourage infrastructure investment in the state, including its new NY Works Initiative, a $700 million program that will access capital from the private sector, pension funds and state sources for infrastructure improvements for Port Authority and MTA capital projects. Foye also applauded the $4 billion proposal by Genting Malaysia Berhad—the developer of the only legislatively authorized racino in New York City— to develop a 3.8 million-square-foot convention center and 3,000-key hotel in Southeast Queens.

In addition, Foye supports the creation of a mixed-use community on the 18-acre Jacob K. Javits Center on Manhattan’s Far West Side. “It would become an Uptown Battery Park City,” he said, noting it could create nearly $2 billion in private investment to the state.

On the infrastructure front, Foye said the Port Authority is working with the New Jersey Department of Transportation on repurposing $1.8 billion worth of funds to improve access roads leading to the Lincoln Tunnel. On the Goethals Bridge redevelopment, the Port is obtaining three proposals from three pre-qualified developers to design, build, finance and maintain the bridge under a public-private partnership model. When Goethals construction begins expected in 2013, about 2,500 construction jobs will be created.

The Port Authority will continue to operate and control the bridge, while a separate developer team will design-build and maintain the bridge for 35 years in exchange for fixed payments from the Port. “This approach will, we hope, lower costs and transfer risk to the developer and speed delivery of the project,” Foye said.

The $1 billion Bayonne Bridge reconstruction is also underway, he added. The project, which will be completed in 2014, involves the raising of the roadbed of the bridge by more than 60 feet above the Kill van Kull between New Jersey and Staten Island. The project is also linked to the Panama Canal expansion along both the Gulf and East Coasts, which will expand global trade and shipping capacity by allowing post-Panamax ships to pass through the New York/New Jersey harbor area.

But Foye said a growing inequality is emerging among the Port’s docks. Citing a lack of diversity among dock workers, Foye said the lion’s share of longshoresman are 85% white and 90% male, describing it as “not acceptable.”

“At a time when all Port Authority investments must be measured by economic returns on capital investment and job growth, we also must be focused on social returns and basic fairness,” he said. “I intend to use every tool at our disposal, including leases with new customers, lease extensions and modifications with our existing customers, and most importantly, conditioning the Port’s future investment on billions of dollars in reaching acceptable, concrete and enforceable diversity clarity plans, not mere symbolic gestures, to make the workforce on both sides of the Hudson look more like our region.”