The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 146

Is the Freedom Tower in serious trouble, despite the fact that the foundation excavations are under way? That certainly seems to be the case. Who's to blame? The usual suspects of course, for the usual reasons and even the likely successor to Governor Pataki chimes in:

The project has been criticized by some real estate executives and civic leaders, who have called it too big, in the wrong location and unlikely to attract corporate tenants. The Democratic nominee for governor, Eliot Spitzer, has expressed concern that it could turn into "a white elephant."

Too big? That's because it would probably compete with the various other projects developers are pushing. Wrong location? As opposed to Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, which detractors say would increase congestion at the corners of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues to gridlock proportions - and worse on game days.

No, this is another attempt at ankle biting the construction at Ground Zero just as momentum is building to get steel rising. Unnamed civic groups and unnamed developers. The only person in this article who has attached their name to a position on the Freedom Tower is Spitzer, and his is really the only person's opinion who should count. Instead of predicting that this will be a white elephant, he should do his best to make sure that doesn't come to pass.

The NY Post warns that the Port Authority may be on the verge of killing the Freedom Tower because it can't get the financials to work out. No one can blame Silverstein for this mess - he's out of the way - forced out by the Port Authority.

In other words, the signature element of the Libeskind master plan is on the verge of being significantly redesigned or canned - and where's Governor Pataki to get this done? *crickets chirping*

What makes this whole mess all the more intriguing is that the Port Authority's contractors are already preparing the site for the foundations. So, we're watching the Port Authority spending money on a building that might not even get built? Who's going to pay for that? This is all rather exasperating and makes you wonder if Silverstein shouldn't have been put in charge of rebuilding the entire site and not the Port Authority and master plan by committee*, since he's the only one to actually get one of the sites destroyed on 9/11 completely rebuilt with a permanent structure.

*I know that it's officially the Libeskind master plan, but it's been reworked so many times by the Port Authority and even by Silverstein's team, that it's a mere shell of its original look.

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