"Lucky" Larry Silverstein Still at Odds with Port Authority as Arbitration Deadline Passes

The Tribeca Trib
Port Authority, Silverstein Still at Odds as Arbitration Deadline Passes
Mar. 13
By Matt Dunning

A view of the eastern half of the World Trade Center site, where Larry Silverstein had originally planned to build three massive office towers.

An arbitration panel’s March 12 deadline for a new construction agreement between developer Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority has passed, with the two warring sides still nowhere near an accord for development of the World Trade Center site.

In January, arbitrators gave Silverstein and the Port Authority—which owns the 16-acre site—45 days to come up with a new construction schedule and financing plan for the site’s eastern half. In that time, both sides made offers for a new deal, but none of the proposals seemed to gain much traction. The sides remained in negotiations well into the night on Friday, but were ultimately unable to come to terms. Now, with the deadline passed, the arbitration panel has the authority to draft a binding construction schedule of its own.
http://www.tribecatrib.com/news/2010/march/543_port-authority-silverstein-still-at-odds-asdeadline-passes.html

"Following substantial discussions, the Port Authority, Silverstein Properties, New York City, and the States of New York and New Jersey, have made progress toward resolving the issues surrounding the eastern portion of the World Trade Center site," the sides said in a joint statement released Friday night. "The parties are jointly updating the arbitration panel that we are continuing to negotiate.”

On Feb. 10, Silverstein told the Port Authority that he would contribute $250 million of his own money to the construction of two of his three planned towers—Towers 3 and 4—on the east half of the site if the agency would agree to guarantee loans to cover the rest of the building costs. The Auhtority countered the developer’s proposal almost a month later, offering last week to finance the two towers if Silverstein could come up with $300 million in private capital and pre-lease about a quarter of the office space in Tower 3.

“A continued standoff helps no one,” Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said in a statement issued Friday. “If binding arbitration can end this deadlock, I’m all for it.Ü But the time for delay is over.”