The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 123

Are you kidding me? The memorial plan has been accepted for how long now, and Pataki Administration finally concedes that there are problems with security now?

Mr. Kallstrom said he was writing on behalf of the Lower Manhattan Counter-Terrorism Advisory Team, a multiagency group that includes the Police Department, and its private security consultants, Science Applications International Corporation. He also said the firm Ducibella Venter & Santore helped identify areas of vulnerability.

Although the letter repeatedly uses the phrase "L.M.C.A.T.'s recommendation," Mr. Kallstrom said yesterday that it was intended more as a heads-up to the architects and engineers about possible security considerations. Bids from contractors for the memorial's structural foundations are due next month.

"My concern is that we didn't have to go back and jackhammer things out," Mr. Kallstrom said.

The letter was addressed to Stefan Pryor, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, with a copy to John P. Cahill, secretary to the governor. It was distributed on April 5 to senior executives of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, which will build and operate the memorial.

It is striking for its explicit references to terrorist threats. Officials are typically much more circumspect in public remarks. Mr. Kallstrom would clearly have preferred to keep it that way. "I'm going to recommend that we have an investigation to see who disclosed it," he said.

While they're talking about making modifications to the ramps and others access points to the subterranean memorial, I see this as backtracking on the concept and could provide an out given that the fundraising has been abysmal.

And wasn't it yesterday that Pataki and Bloomberg were saying that now was the time to end negotiations and get a deal done? So what does Pataki do? Throw doubt into the whole process for the memorial. Figures.

New York real estate insiders question the Port Authority proposals to Silverstein. The Post calls this a bogus breakthrough. It only means that the Port Authority is finally in agreement among themselves over a bargaining position with Silverstein. Bloomberg may be all for this new deal, but there's absolutely no incentive for Silverstein to accept any part of it. Silverstein has the legal right to redevelop the site, and the holdups have not been on his part - but that of the Port Authority, LMDC, and the politicians who have gummed up the works. The latest 'deal' is nothing more than window dressing on a proposal that Silverstein will likely reject because it is far less than what he's already legally entitled to.

UPDATE:
In other Ground Zero news, Tower 2, which is being designed by Sir Norman Foster's firm, is moving forward in the design and engineering phase. That's a positive sign in an otherwise bleak outlook.

PLANS for one of the key buildings at Ground Zero are starting to jell.
The 65-story tower, referred to as "building two," will have a 200 Greenwich Street address and is being designed by Lord Norman Foster.

Foster designed Hearst's "Crystal Cathedral" and is planning two towers for RFR Holdings - one at 610 Lexington and 53rd St. by the Seagram Building, and the other on the old Sotheby's building at 77th and Madison. You can be sure all the curtain walls will be creative and unique.

We already know the base of "two" will include 130,000 feet of street and underground retail connecting directly to Santiago Calatrava's PATH station just across the new Fulton St.

UPDATE:
The New York Sun calls the latest Port Authority offer nothing more than a land grab.

Governor Pataki and Governor Corzine appear to be betting that Mr. Silverstein will decide that it's better to gain the right to build anything on the ground that he leased rather than waiting for the Port Authority to honor its word. If the Port Authority wins this, New Yorkers will spend the next several decades regretting that the Port Authority ever had anything to do with the site.

It wont be just New Yorkers, but all Americans who will have to live with the results. Considering that the Port Authority was trying to divest itself of nonessential real estate holdings before 9/11, that it would try to weasel its way back into the real estate business is counter productive to a public authority whose mission is not to develop real estate but to assist in the growth and development of the Ports of New York and New Jersey.

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