Red Hook terminal

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey has reversed course and is now fighting to keep a shipping terminal in Red Hook, the Brooklyn Paper reported.

Previous Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward, was ready to move the locus of shipping in the borough to Sunset Park, the paper said, but the agency now wants to keep the shipping terminal open. If the terminal were to lose the inspectors required for international shipping facilities, many jobs could disappear, the paper said. The terminal handles container ships and bulk cargo. [more]

The priorities of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey are likely to shift under its upcoming change of leadership and as the agency is undertaking a review of its  $25 billion, 10-year budget for capital projects, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Earlier this week, Christopher Ward, executive director of the Port Authority, announced that he would be resigning next month. Governor Andrew Cuomo will be leading the process to find his replacement.

“What we need to do is look at all the projects that are on the drawing board, those that are in the pipeline, those that are ready to go, those that are going and decide about priorities and timing and sequencing, and that’s part of this process,” David Samson, chairman of the Port Authority, said. “Everything is on the table.” [more]

From left: Larry Silverstein, Port Authority’s Chris Ward and David Childs of SOM

Developer Larry Silverstein of Silverstein Properties, David Childs of SOM, architect of 1 World Trade Center, and Chris Ward, executive director of Port Authority gathered on “Charlie Rose” Tuesday night with other real estate and architecture pros (see video above) to talk about the development of the World Trade Center site. The process from the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks until now took longer than most expected, Silverstein said, but he’s extremely content as to where the process is now. “The time won’t matter in the end if we do the right thing,” Paul Goldberger, the New Yorker’s architecture critic added, “and I think we’re basically doing the right thing.” Silverstein spoke about his relationship with Ward, the name change from Freedom Tower to 1 World Trade Center and negotiating the emotional resonance the site has for New Yorkers with his aspirations to build an urban metropolis that would rival the site as it was before the attacks.
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From left: Tom Hanks, the 9/11 memorial, Chris Ward, executive director at Port Authority, David Samson, Port Authority chairman and Alan Reiss, deputy director of WTC construction

Opening with shots of the Eiffel Tower and other monuments around the world, a short documentary created for a Washington D.C. Sept. 11 memorial event with President Barack Obama next week aims to tell the story of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center beyond the controversy, delays and disputes. The Real Deal attended a private preview screening of the film at 57 Screening Room on 140 West 57th Street.

“The tallest object always takes on symbolism that is greater than the structure,” actor Tom Hanks states in the opening moments of the roughly 10-minute film, which he narrates.  [more]

Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward and 1 World Trade center

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey will not resort to selling 1 World Trade Center, despite some suggesting that opting out of the real estate game is the only way for it to raise money, the New York Post reported.

“There’s not a chance,” said Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward when asked by the Post if a sale was a possibility.

The Port Authority’s money issues have been well documented. It was recently reported that toll hikes on the George Washington Bridge and the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, pushed by Port Authority of New York & New Jersey chiefs, were a means to cover up wild overruns in costs at the World Trade Center site. The agency has gone over budget by $186 million at Silverstein Properties’ 1 World Trade Center.
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Toll hikes on the George Washington Bridge and the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, pushed by Port Authority of New York & New Jersey chiefs, are a means to cover up wild overruns in costs at the World Trade Center site, the New York Post reported. Rebuilding the site will apparently cost about $2 billion more than was forecast 2008 in the official financial plans by agency head Chris Ward.

“Everybody knew that it wasn’t the full numbers,” said one expert on the Port Authority’s financial problems. “Everybody knew the numbers were off from the start.”

According to documents obtained by the Post, construction has gone over budget by $186 million at Silverstein Properties’ 1 World Trade Center, work on the transportation hub has run $200 million over budget and other work on the site’s infrastructure has surpassed expected costs by $422 million. [more]

World Trade Center memorial photo from July 2011 (credit: Port Authority)

Drew Warshaw, chief of staff of the Port Authority and the man that Chris Ward bestowed the majority of the credit upon for the progress at the World Trade Center memorial, said the key to finishing the memorial in time for the 10-year anniversary was building the site’s PATH Station backwards. In an interview with New York Magazine, Warshaw said engineers concluded in 2008 that the only way to complete the memorial — which had been intended to sit atop the PATH station — in time was to build the roof of the station first, rather than build with the traditional ground-up method. He said, with safety concerns in mind, he expects about 1,500 people to visit the site per hour. [more]

“One World Trade Center is now New York’s first address for premier corporate office tenants,” Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Executive Director Chris Ward declared today as he took the stage on the 34th floor of the yet-to-be-finished Freedom Tower to announce Conde Nast’s signing for one million square feet in the building (see photos above). “Already the announcement has generated new interest in 1 World Trade, and let me tell you, the word is now out: See you Downtown.”

Symbolic as today’s signing might be of a transforming neighborhood, many in the real estate industry say the landscape has been changing for a while now. [more]

Chris Ward and a rendering of 4 WTC

The state funding entity New York Liberty Development that pulled a $900 million bond offering Monday needs to sell the securities by the end of the year or risk stalling the construction schedule of 4 World Trade Center, Christopher Ward, executive director of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, said today.

Larry Silverstein’s Silverstein Properties has enough money to fund the project through the end of the year, but the additional funds are needed to be certain that work proceeds into 2012.

“We would need to price those [4 World Trade Center] bonds at least by the end of this year to ensure that construction continues. And we are very optimistic that is going to happen,” Ward said. [more]

A plan to recreate a Windows on the World-style restaurant atop 1 World Trade Center has been scrapped by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which believes the space will be more financially viable if used in another way. The long-planned restaurant, once slated to take up several floors of the 1,776-foot-tall tower, was later scaled down to just one in order to cut costs. But according to the Post, its construction and design proved to be unaffordable even at that size, and the Port Authority was skeptical that it would be able to find a restaurateur willing to take it on. [more]