Rendering of the September 11th Memorial plaza

The city has been preparing for years for the opening of the National September 11th Memorial and Museum on this year’s 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks. But according to the Post, planners of the $508 million project overlooked one minor detail: there won’t be a single toilet on the eight-acre plaza to accommodate the millions of visitors expected. The memorial, which will display the names of the 2,982 victims of the terrorist attacks around two large reflecting pools, will eventually sit above a seven-story, below-grade museum, slated to open in the fall of 2012. The museum will of course have bathrooms, but the city said it has no plans to bring porta-potties to the site prior to its debut. Discount department store Century 21, which houses the closest bathrooms to the site, is already on alert for a deluge of visitors. [more]

Park51 developer Sharif El-Gamal and the former Burlington Coat Factory site at 45 Park Place

The developers of the controversial Park51 Islamic cultural center at the site of a former Burlington Coat Factory near Ground Zero are suing the retailer for $4.5 million for damaging the building’s façade. According to the Daily News, the developers have filed a suit in Manhattan Supreme Court accusing Burlington of hurriedly tearing down two signs that had been bolted to the building after the proposed mosque became “the focus of media attention” in late 2009. [more]

The former Deutsche Bank office at 130 Liberty Street is almost completely demolished, after nearly 10 years of legal entanglements and devastating accidents, according to the Brooklyn Eagle. The building, which sustained significant damage during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, was supposed to be deconstructed in 2005 — a piece of debris from the World Trade Center collapse had torn through 15-stories of the building. But the demolition was put on hold after a legal battle erupted over who would pay for the $300 million project. [more]

The Greek Archdiocese of New York’s plans to build a new church at 130 Liberty Street in the Financial District may be dashed to the wind, according to the New York Post. The church, which was intended to replace the archdiocese’s original structure destroyed during the Sept. 11 attacks at 155 Cedar Street, would have been built above the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey’s Vehicle Screening Center. But after months of contentious negotiations between the Port Authority and the archdiocese over the 130 Liberty Street site, sources say that design plans for the screening center will make building the church there impossible. [more]

A Greek Orthodox church destroyed by debris from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks is suing the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey over a failed deal to rebuild its home, the Wall Street Journal reported. In the claim filed yesterday, leaders of the St. Nicholas Church allege that the agency engaged in “arrogance, bad faith and fraudulent conduct” when it withdrew in March from negotiations over a 2008 rebuilding agreement, citing excessive demands by the church. [more]

A settlement between the owners of 160 buildings damaged in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the workers injured during their cleaning, repair and demolition is very likely to come to fruition within months, a court-appointed official said during a hearing today in Manhattan district court. Despite the “monumentally complex” litigation, which involves around 1,300 building workers, 160 property owners and their insurers, James Henderson, a Cornell Law School professor who has been overseeing settlement talks, told U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein that he sees “a very good prognosis” and predicted that a deal is just months away, Bloomberg news reported. The building workers have claimed illnesses caused by exposure to toxic debris from the World Trade Center site. Hellerstein is the same judge who, in June, approved a $712.5 million settlement involving injury claims by rescue and recovery workers at Ground Zero. [Bloomberg]

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A settlement between the owners of 160 buildings damaged in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the workers injured during their cleaning, repair and demolition is very likely to come to fruition within months, a court-appointed official said during a hearing today in Manhattan district court. Despite the “monumentally complex” litigation, which involves around 1,300 building workers, 160 property owners and their insurers, James Henderson, a Cornell Law School professor who has been overseeing settlement talks, told U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein that he sees “a very good prognosis” and predicted that a deal is just months away, Bloomberg news reported. The building workers have claimed illnesses caused by exposure to toxic debris from the World Trade Center site. Hellerstein is the same judge who, in June, approved a $712.5 million settlement involving injury claims by rescue and recovery workers at Ground Zero. [Bloomberg]

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A proposed 13-story mosque and Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero was unanimously approved by Community Board 1′s financial district committee last night despite grumblings from some who said the project was offensive for families of 9/11 victims, according to the Daily News. The $100 million glass-and-steel Cordoba House would be built on the site of the old Burlington Coat Factory, at 45 Park Place near Broadway, and would have a 500-seat performing arts venue, swimming pool and basketball court in addition to the mosque. [more]

Though the World Trade Center rebuilding effort has been marred by delays and bitter disputes, the National September 11 Memorial, which will take up half of Ground Zero, is well on its way to completion, with its opening date still on schedule for next year’s 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The memorial, for which 90 percent of the contracts have been awarded, 99 percent of the steel has been installed and 60 percent of the concrete has been poured, is expected to draw between 5 and 7 million visitors per year — making it the biggest attraction in the city — and could even be finished a few months early. The museum below the eight-acre memorial space is slated to open the following year, and construction for the 125,000-square-foot space is slated to get underway in the next few months. The $700 million construction project got half its funding from the government and half from corporations and the public. Officials in charge of the memorial estimate that it will cost $50 million a year to run.

[Crain’s]

As of December, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. still had yet to spend much of the $2 billion it received from the federal government after Sept. 11, 2001, the Downtown Express reported. The organization, which Mayor Mike Bloomberg has said should be shuttered and folded into the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center subsidiary, has earmarked $1.87 billion of the funds for specific projects, like the $140 million reconstruction of the East River Waterfront and the new, $23 million Spruce Street School. But it has spent only $1.33 billion of those earmarked funds so far, and the remaining $135 million is not committed to any project yet. The LMDC had also received another $783 million from the government for utility repairs, of which $159 million is not yet committed. Even more money could be left over if projects are completed ahead of schedule, or if Bloomberg’s calls for the LMDC to cease operations are heeded: the organization has set aside $14 million for its future administrative costs. [Downtown Express]