Head Scratcher

Since when does cancelling a contract to demolish a building actually speed up rebuilding? That's what a New York Times story implies in John Cahill's first days on the job as the head of the LMDC.

On May 13, the day after he was named to the post, Mr. Cahill canceled the contract with the company in charge of demolishing the Deutsche Bank building, hoping to speed up the construction of a new building on the site. The building was damaged beyond repair in the attacks of 2001, and its demolition has been repeatedly delayed by a series of environmental disputes.

Cahill thinks that the whole demolition contract should be put up for bid again because the company and the EPA haven't been able to agree on how to demolish the building without releasing contaminants into the air within acceptable limits.

But when the Environmental Protection Agency and other groups raised concerns that those plans did not adequately guard against the potential release of contaminants in the air, the project became more or less deadlocked, with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and Gilbane wrestling with how to meet the new deconstruction demands. After federal officials decided that the project would be covered in scaffolding for decontamination, Mr. Cahill concluded the entire project needed to be put up for bidding again. Gilbane's original contract was for $45 million, but that figure is expected to increase vastly.

So, not only will this demolition be delayed as a new contract process has to be established, but it will be significantly more expensive than originally anticipated.

Then, there's the case of Goldman Sachs, which sought to build a $2 billion building on the northern edge of the WTC site, but instead cancelled the project when it appeared that West Street would be submerged in a tunnel whose entrance would be right outside the Sachs building site. Cahill has to get that project back on track - and that is just as pressing an issue as the Deutsche Bank demolition.

Here's a simple way to handle this - get it done. Whatever it takes. Expedite the demolitions in order for new buildings to replace the damaged ones - that includes Fiterman Hall too. Get Goldman Sachs to commit to the Lower Manhattan site, and give them guarantees on transportation access.

UPDATE 3:30PM EDT 5/25/2005:
Mayor Bloomberg announces $800 million towards downtown redevelopment. Great. It's two steps forward (this news), followed by one step backwards (the original post). However, it's arguable that this is merely another rehashing of an old story, and instead we're just seeing more of the same on downtown development, which is to say nothing.