The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 94

Forget about the 2008 deadline for completing the Freedom Tower blares the New York Times headline. There's plenty of blame to go around, from the LMDC, Port Authority, Larry Silverstein, and city and state officials who took turns deciding how the site should look, and David Libeskind whose master plan was panned, and his vision of the Freedom Tower was completely unworkable.

Officials no longer put any stock in a 2008 completion date. Indeed, under the current schedule, Larry A. Silverstein, the developer who controls the lease at the trade center, would not finish building and leasing the tower until the end of 2011.

But the Freedom Tower and the decisions made in 2003 loom large today over the very public slugfest involving Mr. Silverstein, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land, over what is going to be built, who is going to build it and when.

The governor, who is considering a presidential run, has insisted on an April groundbreaking for the Freedom Tower, which is sure to attract national attention.

But many urban planners, downtown real estate executives and civic leaders contend that the $2.3 billion, 2.6 million square foot Freedom Tower is planned for the wrong place, too big and would be unlikely to attract tenants other than government agencies, though few are willing to say so publicly for fear of offending the governor.

There are even suggestions that Mr. Silverstein may offer to return the Freedom Tower site to the Port Authority as part of a restructuring of his lease at ground zero, according to people involved in negotiations on the site's future. Mr. Pataki, for his part, has said Mr. Silverstein must have resolved his disagreements with the Port Authority by March 14 or face losing hundreds of millions of dollars in government subsidies.

The Times cites to anonymous planners, executives, and civic leaders because they don't want to incur Pataki's wrath. No mention that those same groups have competing interests that actually work against rebuilding at Ground Zero.

That includes the New York Times itself, whose real estate holdings would face competition from a rebuilt Ground Zero (the NYT Co works with Forest City Ratner in its new headquarters building).

And Silverstein and Bloomberg are having a very public spat over development at Ground Zero that started only a few weeks before the mayoral elections last November, and have only escalated. Bloomberg's idea for the site would actually force even more delays into the rebuilding.

All the while, every single day of delay means higher costs for rebuilding. And that distorts the very real estate market that the developers are trying to shape.

Meanwhile, doctors are looking at whether exposure to air in the Ground Zero environs after the towers destruction in the terrorist attacks may lead to an increased incidence of heart attacks.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower, IFC, International Freedom Center.