PA slated to approve city funding agreement for Ground Zero arts center

Ground Zero’s planned performing arts center is slated to clear another hurdle today if, as expected, the board of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey approves a funding agreement with the city for the building’s below-ground infrastructure. Under the agreement, the agency would be reimbursed by the city for the cost of construction for the footings and foundations — an estimated $44 million. The money would likely be drawn from a $50 million fund controlled by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. The LMDC has been pushing to move the arts center to the site of the Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street, which it owns and where it believes the project would be cheaper. But the city wants to stick to Frank Gehry’s original site plans, which has the center situated between Fulton, Greenwich, Vesey and Washington streets, and the Port Authority would have to agree to a site change. But despite that tension, Linda Shelton of the Joyce Theater, the arts center’s anchor tenants, said she believes today’s discussion about the funding is a tangible sign that the project is moving forward. [NYT]