In an appearance on CNBC this morning, developer Larry Silverstein, who last week delayed the sale of $1.3 billion in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds to finance his 4 World Trade Center tower, said he expects to bring the bond issue to market sometime early next year. Right now, he said, “we’ve got a bond market that is in a state of chaos,” but the first quarter of next year should be “the ideal time” to make the offering. Watch him expound on his outlook for New York’s office market more generally in the video above.

Larry Silverstein and the World Trade Center site

Silverstein Properties has delayed its scheduled sale of $1.3 billion in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds to finance the first of the developer’s three office towers at the World Trade Center “until the bond market stabilizes,” the Wall Street Journal reported. The municipal bond market has been erratic in recent weeks as borrowers have rushed to take advantage of the federal Build America Bonds subsidy program, which may expire soon without an extension from Congress. With an expected completion date of 2013, the 4 World Trade Center project has already risen through the 10th floor but needs the bonds to fund the rest. [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]

Larry Silverstein may be about to receive tens of millions of dollars in federal stimulus leftovers for the construction of his office towers at the World Trade Center. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson are mulling over what to do with the unused incentives from the state’s $555 million allotment from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 before their Dec. 31 expiration deadline. [more]

After a 19-month stalemate with the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was destroyed after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey said it hopes to renew talks with the church next week, according to DNAinfo. The two groups have been deadlocked over where the church should rebuild — the Port Authority said it needed to use the church’s original land at 155 Cedar Street near the World Trade Center site to build a security facility. While the Port Authority offered the church a larger site — and $20 million in rebuilding funds — church officials said they wouldn’t budge. Chris Ward, executive director of the Port Authority, said he’s eager to reach an agreement with St. Nicholas. “Our hope is that we can successfully negotiate appropriate compensation,” Ward said. “If the church fails to negotiate in good faith… we would have to invoke some kind of eminent domain.” [DNAinfo]

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Sharif El-Gamal

From the October issue: Sharif El-Gamal is the chairman and CEO of Manhattan-based real estate investment firm Soho Properties. But he’s now internationally known as the developer of Park51, a community center and Islamic prayer space planned two blocks from the World Trade Center site. The building — labeled the “ground zero mosque” by critics, a name that El-Gamal says is incorrect — has sparked a worldwide firestorm. In this month’s edition of “The Closing,” El-Gamal opens up about the Park51 controversy, receiving death threats and how he met his wife. (El-Gamal will be a special guest at The Real Deal’s sixth annual forum, “The Road to Recovery,” Wed., Oct. 13, 2010. Click here for more information.) [more]

Mayor also talks about the prevalence of rats and bedbugs and LeBron James picking Miami

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has staunchly supported Park51, the proposed community center and Islamic prayer space in Lower Manhattan, did more of the same last night on “The Late Show with David Letterman” (see segment above). “This is New York City. So you have adult bars — all different kinds of thi [more]

New renderings of the planned Park51 community center

SOMA Architects, the designers of Lower Manhattan’s controversial Park51 Islamic community center, have released new renderings (above) of the 18-story building, slated for the former Burlington Coat Factory site two blocks from the World Trade Center. Meanwhile, developer Sharif El-Gamal appeared on the “Today Show” to address the controversy as the eye-catching designs were released to the public. “This has been very unexpected. It’s been an eye-opener to see how my country, the United States, views my religion, Islam. It’s been a very humbling moment and it’s been a very sad moment for me, personally,” he told host Matt Lauer. Watch the video below. TRD

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Larry Silverstein’s attorneys said in court filings this week that he won’t have enough cash to build all of his planned World Trade Center towers unless he gets the billions of dollars he’s been asking for from insurers for United Airlines, American Airlines and other aviation companies. Silverstein has long been waging a legal campaign to win as much as $12 billion in funding from insurers for the airlines. “Due to a shortage of funds, two out of the four office/retail building sites on the World Trade Center site will remain indefinitely in an unbuilt or half-built condition,” the attorneys wrote to U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein. One month ago, Silverstein finalized an agreement with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey that gives him enough funding to build Tower 4 in its entirety and to begin Tower 3. But Silverstein is on his own in raising the additional $300 million needed to complete Tower 3 and the $2 billion needed for Tower 2. [Post]

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Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the Russian head of the World Chess Federation offered a $10 million bid to buy the Park Place site of the planned mosque and Islamic cultural center two blocks from Ground Zero, in a letter he wrote to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the New York Post reported. Ilyumzhinov chose the sum of $10 million because he wanted to beat out the $7.5 million bid offered by Donald Trump last week, which was rejected. An online sports wagering site, YouWager.com, is taking bets on which individual or group will be next to offer to
purchase the Lower Manhattan site. Ilyumzhinov wants to use the land for an international chess center and academy, he said. The eccentric Ilyumzhinov — who is famous for claiming in interviews that he has met aliens — last week stepped down as president of Russia’s Buddhist region of Kalmykia, where he built a complex devoted to chess called “Chess City.” [Post]

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