World Trade Center Developments

[Daquan13]

Well, at this point, I'd be happy enough to see the Freedom Tower, memorial and PATH Station built, and the other towers can be built over time, if need be.

[NYC4Life]

New York Observer

$1.7 B. in Overruns at World Trade Center Site


by Eliot Brown | September 30, 2008



Joe Woolhead / Courtesy of Silverstein Properties.


As the Port Authority gears up for its big bare-all report Thursday on World Trade Center dates and costs, the price tag of the site stands to rise significantly.

According to numerous people familiar with discussions, the Port Authority is planning to announce the total amount in overruns is about $1.7 billion for the whole site. The amount presents the public sector with a large gap to fill in a time of strained budgets; however, the dollar figure is not quite as cataclysmic as early reports suggested, which put the gap at as much as $3 billion.

The overruns apply to the public sector portion of the site, which includes the Freedom Tower, the Santiago Calatrava-designed PATH hub, the common infrastructure, the vehicle screening center, the memorial, and the museum (but not the three Larry Silverstein-built towers). The amount budgeted for those components is $8.4 billion, which comes from a variety of sources.

Of the $1.7 billion in overruns, about $500 million is due to excess costs at the PATH hub, which has a design considered to be extraordinarily complex. The station currently has $2.5 billion available in funds, including contingencies, most of which comes from the Federal Transit Administration.

The Freedom Tower, which is gradually rising above street level, is likely to be more than $100 million over its $2.9 billion budget. Other components of the site, including common infrastructure and security, also require hundreds of millions more in contributions.


© 2008 Observer Media Group, All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

[antinimby]

Silverstein is going to build the towers. He has no choice but to. Right now, he is still paying rent to the PA for what is essentially non-existent buildings. It is in his own best interest to rebuild as soon as possible and start collecting rent from tenants.

Although there may not be a large corporate financial tenant taking up an entire tower, there will still be smaller companies that are looking for space. Even the original WTC was filled mostly by multiple tenants occupying small spaces.

[NYC4Life]

Crain's New York

October 01. 2008 6:00PM

Port Authority shocker: Trade Center making progress

Report due Thursday to conclude Silverstein can finish on schedule.




Theresa Agovino

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey is slated to announce Thursday that it will meet all its obligations to lay the groundwork that will allow Larry Silverstein to complete the three towers he is developing at World Trade Center site by 2012 as scheduled, sources say.

Thursday’s report, these say sources, will be nowhere near as bleak as imagined last June. That is when the agency announced construction was lagging way behind schedule and was far over budget. Published reports have already said there is a plan to have the Sept. 11 memorial ready by the 10th anniversary of the tragedy in 2011—a feat that the Port Authority four months ago flatly said was impossible.

One source attributes the new, more optimistic view of progress at Ground Zero to design and engineering changes made in recent weeks. Currently, the Port Authority's Freedom Tower, like Mr. Silverstein’s buildings, are due to be finished by 2012.

The latest target dates for the transportation hub and memorial museum is 2011. Earlier government-funded site studies had indicated that the deadlines were likely to be missed by 18 to 36 months and that the $8.4 billion earmarked for the Port Authority's projects wasn't enough.

Even now, one source said the transportation hub would miss the 2011 deadline.

A spokesman for the Port Authority said that the dates aren't all finalized.

In the weeks after June’s announcement, speculation had mounted that the Port Authority, which owns the site, would announce that at least one of the towers would be delayed. In fact, the agency has not yet even turned over the building site for one of the towers to Mr. Silverstein.

Many real estate brokers and developers alike were quietly hoping that some of the towers would be delayed. They viewed it as giving the city more of a chance to absorb the millions of square feet of space that are expected to flood the market as a result of the financial crisis.

One source says that the completion of Greenwich Street, which is crucial to allow Mr. Silverstein’s building to be constructed, will be done by the third quarter of 2011, which should give him enough time to complete his towers. The worst case scenario is the first quarter of 2012.

Still, some doubt Mr. Silverstein will be able to get financing for the buildings in this environment. He has said he will construct the towers using insurance proceeds and liberty bonds but other suggest that might not cover the full construction costs.

Nonetheless, in the past Mr. Silverstein has said that he wants the development to go forward as scheduled. He could not be reached for an immediate comment.

Financial services firms lease about 30% of Manhattan's office space, and they are shedding it quickly. The amount of sublease space on the market is soaring at 25% above the amount available last year at this time.

Real estate insiders speculate that the combination of an oversupply of space and low demand could drive rents down as much as 15% and increase vacancy rates to 9% over the next year—the highest level since 2004. Vacancies hit 7.1% in the second quarter, up nearly 2 percentage points from the year-earlier period, according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Not surprisingly, the prospect of an additional 6.2 million square feet of space at the Trade Center hitting the market in just four years is viewed by some with great regret.

That is especially true since downtown typically fares worse in economic downturns than other parts of the city. Meanwhile, Mr. Silverstein still has yet to fully lease his two-year-old 7 World Trade. Last week a deal for HSBC to take the tower’s top 6 floors fell apart.

The vacancy rate for Class A buildings downtown rose to 7.4% in the third quarter from 6.9% in the second, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.


© 2008 Crain Communications, Inc.

[STT757]

World Trade Center Report October, 2008.

http://www.panynj.gov/pdf/WTC_Report_Oct_08.pdf

[joe25]

more delays

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122295638487998239.html

[Sherpa]

I was 36 on 9/11. I will be 49 or 50 when its all rebuilt.

[joe25]

I was 36 on 9/11. I will be 49 or 50 when its all rebuilt.

WOW gratz, ill hopefully be finishing my sophmore year.

[NYC4Life]

The Calatrava Transit Hub, has been the element on the site most delayed, partly, due to its underground complexity.

[NYatKNIGHT]

more delays

It's really the same delays we've been discussing reported over and over again. The site's actually been relatively productive lately.

That's not to say there aren't plenty of obstacles that could cause new delays. I'm curious to see how willing the State will be to cooperate with Memorial construction staging along West St.

[GreenwichBoy]

http://www.panynj.gov/wtcprogress/index.html

[Daquan13]

Interesting website! Thanks.

[NYC4Life]

Today at 4:45 PM - From EarthCam

I enhanced the original EarthCam capture in Photoshop.

[Sherpa]

Looks just like the same hole in the ground from 2003

[lofter1]

If you can write that in earnest then you need glasses.