We all can't be that silly not to understand that they will erect as many office block buildings as they can in NY.

JC's business waterfront was only going to be a temp thing and all those buildings on the waterfront on our side, will eventually be converted into housing.

Seriously a JC business address has ftuck all appeal compared to a NY address.

Those that bought an apartment on the waterfront better grip themselves for crap returns when they try to sell.

We already have floors empty in our office buildings on our side of the river.

Watch this space.....but we have a few (3 max) years to go till the transition takes place.
Its amazing when you tender for work and see where things are heading !!!!

Does the area even need Towers 2 and 3.

Port, Silverstein Move Closer with New Two-Tower WTC Offer

NY Observer
By Eliot Brown
March 4, 2010

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey this week presented a new offer to private developer Larry Silverstein that seeks to assist in financing construction of two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center.

The offer calls for Mr. Silverstein to raise $300 million in new private capital and for the city to put in a significant contribution toward the redevelopment before the Port Authority would put up money to back financing on two towers?Tower 3 and Tower 4?according to multiple people familiar with the proposal.

Given that the Port Authority's last offer was for Mr. Silverstein to raise $625 million in private capital, this latest offer seems to narrow what was once a giant chasm between the warring parties. Still, negotiations at the site have long proved tremendously difficult, even in good times, and now neither the Port Authority nor Mr. Silverstein are eager to take the pain involved in finding the extra money to fund the project, which was once envisioned as a privately financed development. The offers and counter-offers have been slow in coming, with each side suspicious of the other, and with both bleeding each other as time goes by without a resolution.

According to the people familiar with the offer, Mr. Silverstein, who has hundreds of millions in insurance money?not enough to finance two towers?would need to raise $300 million in private capital. Last month, Mr. Silverstein offered to raise $250 million, with other conditions, including construction deadlines, for the Port Authority. The Port Authority, in both Mr. Silverstein's offer and the Authority's offer, would backstop the financing on the tower, thus capturing the asset should he ultimately default.

The Port Authority's proposal would also give Mr. Silverstein two years to pre-lease 500,000 square feet in the second tower, the Richard Rogers?designed Tower 3, as a condition to the agency's backing of the financing. The rents would have to be at least $80 a foot, a rather high level for Lower Manhattan (Most of the higher floors in Mr. Silverstein's 7 World Trade Center were asking $75 a foot at the market's peak) for a large amount of space.

Silverstein Properties would also, in the Port Authority's proposal, have to keep paying ground rent while it still has insurance money, an expense not in Mr. Silverstein's proposal.

Finally, the agency calls for the city to close the gap, waiving tens of millions worth of payments in lieu of taxes that the Port Authority would pay the city over 30-years. The Port Authority would also seek reimbursement for some of its losses from the city and state should Silverstein ultimately default on either of his towers.

It's not immediately clear how Mr. Silverstein and the city will react to such a proposal. It does indeed bring the two sides closer than a year ago, when Mr. Silverstein wanted two towers, and the Port Authority refused to commit to any more than backing the financing on Tower 4, which has government lease commitments in place. But it does leave many questions, such as whether Mr. Silverstein would agree to a plan that is so contingent on him finding a large tenant.

And then there is the city.

As both sides have warred and the Bloomberg administration has tried to play the role of mediator, the mayor has at the same time balked at putting in more city money, though the city did not have an immediate response to this offer.

The parties have in recent weeks come back together to renew talks, following an arbitration ruling that generally is viewed as favoring the Port Authority, as it did not grant any immediate damages or rent abatements to Mr. Silverstein. There also seem to be other issues, as a redesign of Tower 2, which would likely be replaced by a podium or open space, and a redesign of Tower 3 that has been requested by the Port Authority. Given the complexity of the site, redesigns of the towers' bases can take many months, presumably pushing off construction.

Update 4:40 p.m.

Silverstein spokesman Bud Perrone emailed over a statement, which has to be by far the most cordial comment the company has had in a year about the Port Authority:

"We are pleased that the Port Authority has responded to our February 10 offer with their own proposal, which we are currently studying. We will continue to work with the Port Authority and other stakeholders in order to achieve an agreement that will protect the public's interests and ensure the World Trade Center is rebuilt in a timely manner."

Square One, Ground Zero: Port Authority must kill $1 billion WTC bailout plan

NY Daily News: Sunday, April 19th 2009, 4:00 AM

The terrible economic realities spawned by the financial crisis are playing out disastrously in the long-troubled, long-delayed redevelopment of Ground Zero.

With the demise or shrinkage of Wall Street giants, there are few, if any, tenants to take space in the five huge towers planned for the site. And the banks that used to lend money for construction, well, they're not making loans the way they used to.

No tenants plus no money equals no development. This fact of life is as true at Ground Zero as it is anywhere else - no matter how much the Port Authority, which owns the land, and Larry Silverstein, the builder who holds development rights, might like to defy gravity.

Although he has almost $1 billion in reserve from the insurance payment on the toppling of the World Trade Center, Silverstein isn't close to having the resources to complete the single structure he is building now, called Tower 4, let alone the two others he is obligated to erect.

Nor does Silverstein have anywhere to turn for private financing. Without leases and with a glut of office space on the market, he has nothing to offer lenders except hope for a miraculous economic recovery. He knows better than to ask.

So, paralyzed, Silverstein has turned to the Port Authority to put up billions in public money to guarantee repayment to potential lenders. He would proceed to build Tower 4 and the even larger Tower 2.

Properly, the PA told Silverstein to get lost. But it counteroffered with a proposal to bankroll Silverstein to the tune of $1 billion to build Tower 4.

This is lunacy. This must stop. The PA must withdraw its offer. Govs. Paterson and Jon Corzine, Mayor Bloomberg and the authority must redraw plans for Ground Zero.

The reasons are simple. First, that $1 billion is earmarked for transportation improvements in New York. That is how it must be spent. Second, trying to force development into Ground Zero would be futile and harmful.

The authority is considering a $1 billion investment solely out of a desire to maintain progress on the Trade Center site. But as things now stand, the agency would accomplish only the construction of empty offices.

Worse, the building would compete against the huge skyscraper, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, that the PA is building across site.

For a long time, thanks to the execessively generous terms negotiated by the PA, Silverstein stood to make fabulous sums at Ground Zero while risking none of his own money. That was when times were good. Now they're bad, and he's asking the authority to put more public money at risk so he can stay in the game.

But the game is up.

===================

WTC towers may be delayed for decades

BY AMY WESTFELDT/The Associated Press
Saturday, Apr 18, 2009 - 11:31:35 pm CDT

NEW YORK ? Construction of several ground zero office towers could be put off for decades because of the failing real estate market, the site?s owners said last week, citing an analysis that projected one skyscraper might not be built and occupied until 35 years after Sept. 11.

Developer Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have been talking on and off for months about rewriting a 3-year-old agreement that gives the developer rights to build three out of five towers planned at the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack site.

Silverstein, unable to obtain financing for all the towers and with only about $1 billion left in insurance money to pay for them, asked the Port Authority last fall to guarantee financing for two of his towers, officials familiar with the negotiations say.

The Port Authority agreed to back one tower already under construction, where the government agency has agreed to move once it?s built. Executive Director Chris Ward cited the exodus of major financial firms like Merrill Lynch and AIG from downtown Manhattan as a reason to not flood the market with 10 million square feet of office space at the same time ? about 2013.

Ward also said that Silverstein was free to build his three towers on his own.

Janno Lieber, who oversees the trade center site for Silverstein, said Thursday that guaranteeing financing for Silverstein?s towers would allow the Port Authority to honor its commitment to rebuild lower Manhattan ? ?a promise that the agency has made many times since 9/11,? he added.

The Port Authority is building a 1,776-foot skyscraper, commonly known as the Freedom Tower, that is set to open in 2013. It has no beginning or completion date for a second tower it is responsible for building. Silverstein?s other towers should be built whenever the market improves, Ward said.

The Freedom Tower and Silverstein?s three planned towers ? designed by architects like Lord Norman Foster and Richard Rogers ? are all expected to be among the city?s tallest.

But an analysis prepared for the Port Authority by the Cushman & Wakefield real estate brokerage projected that while two of Silverstein?s towers could be built by 2013, a third wouldn?t be built until 2030 and fully leased until 2036. A second tower that hasn?t been built yet wouldn?t be fully leased until 2025, the analysis said.

A construction union leader appealed to Gov. David Paterson to finance all three towers to keep tens of thousands of workers employed, and ridiculed a proposal to leave two Silverstein towers incomplete by building the first few floors.

The lease requires Silverstein to build his three towers by 2013 or forfeit rights to them.

Kathryn Wylde, chief executive of the Partnership for New York business group, said the real estate market would likely drive the decision how fast to build back office space.

?If you don?t have commercial tenants demanding the space, I don?t see it being developed,? she said. But she wondered at projections like the 2030 date, saying demand for new office space in lower Manhattan would happen long before that.