The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey last week announced it would be able to turn over two sites at World Trade Center ground zero to developer Silverstein Properties Inc., ending an obligation to make steep penalty payments.
The authority is currently on the hook to pay $300,000 a day for not meeting a deadline to turn over the sites last year, which will have cost $132 million through the end of the month.
The two sites will be ready in four to eight weeks after a retaining wall that was built to allow subway service to continue on the site during excavation is relocated. A third site was already turned over in March.
“We are taking aggressive action to end our site-turnover obligations to Silverstein Properties,” Port Authority executive director Chris Ward said in press release.
The developer has sought financial help from the authority, asking it to backstop the financing on two of the three towers it plans to build on the site, citing both the delays and the tight credit market.
The Port Authority balked at the request and after months of deadlocked negotiations. Gov. David Paterson has become involved in the talks.
