Travel and automotive agency AAA doesn’t want bridge and tunnel fare hikes to fund the World Trade Center development, the Associated Press reported.

The agency is pleading with the U.S. Department of Transportation to block the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey’s plans to increase toll fees by up to 50 percent on the grounds that they violate a 1987 federal law requiring bridge tolls to be “just and reasonable.”

But the agency wants to block the costly hikes because it feels transportation revenue should be used to improve transportation. [more]

Silverstein Properties has created a video with Hollywood-style
production to help lease space at the new World Trade Center
buildings to potential tenants, the New York Observer and the
Architects’ Newspaper reported. WTC developer Larry Silverstein, CEO of Silverstein Properties, presented
the video at a construction update at 7 World Trade Center yesterday,
which also showcased interactive touch screens with neighborhood
amenities and transportation news, and a 12-foot model of the finished
site. The video, posted above, mixes live-action, CGI and a music
score to give a sense of how the buildings will look when completed
and are filled with office workers and other members of the public. Silverstein said earlier this week that he was confident that the buildings would become fully-leased. [NYO] [more]

Larry Silverstein

Developer Larry Silverstein is certain that the new buildings at the World Trade Center will end
up fully leased, he said on NY1′s Inside City Hall. Tower 7 is
already fully leased, and Silverstein said he thinks other the
buildings will soon follow. He said he is already in negotiations with
several large firms to lease space in the towers for “large blocks of
space in Tower 4.” For Tower 3, he said he is in discussions with large
tenants who require major space in a new building because they use a
significant amount of technology, and are interested in a “green”
building that is LEED-certified. [more]

A lot in Chelsea around the corner from the High Line will be used to
screen trucks heading to the World Trade Center for bombs,
DNAinfo reported. Officials said the site between West 29th and West
30th streets, from 11th to 12th avenues, is convenient for that
purpose due to its proximity to the West Side Highway. The trucks,
most of which will be coming from the George Washington Bridge, will
be inspected and sniffed by a canine unit before continuing along
their way to the World Trade Center. The Port Authority of New York
& New Jersey is leasing the space from Georgetown Properties. The
property was initially planned for the abandoned Trans-Hudson Rail
Tunnel project. [DNAinfo]

A last-minute deal has prevented a strike of concrete workers at high-profile building construction sites, Crain’s reported. Concrete unions and an industry association came to a tentative contract agreement this evening before a midnight deadline that could have led the 2,700 workers affected to strike. Cement contractors had demanded that the unions accept a 20 percent pay cut on residential and hotel work as they compete with other companies that use nonunion builders. [more]

The World Trade Center towers could rise again, virtually, through an
iPhone app called 110 Stories, in development by New Yorker Brian August,
the New York Times reported. When pointing the app at a location such
as Ground Zero, the outline of the towers seems to appear there on the
iPhone (see video above), rising above the other buildings in the area, including the
new Freedom Tower under construction. Users can then create a
photograph of that image and add a message that can appear on an online
map. The basis of the app is a technique called augmented reality,
which places digital objects in the real world. Originally, August
hand wanted to build an analog version of his vision, constructing a
model of the towers to fill their space in the skyline. He hopes to
release the free app in time for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but said his aim is to create a tribute to the
life of the towers’ existence before the tragedy. August used $7,000
of his own money to first develop the app, and has raised more than
$25,000 on the website Kickstarter from artists and entrepeneurs to
develop it further. Google Creative Labs said this past  Friday it would offer
technical advice and publicity. [New York Times] [more]

The majority of the World Trade Center concrete workers who were on strike
earlier this week have returned to work today after their contract was
extended for another two weeks, WNYC reported. Around 50 concrete and cement
workers picketed outside a Lower Manhattan PATH train entrance for
about an hour today, until Kieran O’Sullivan, the secretary treasurer for
Cement and Concrete Workers Local 18A, arrived at around 8:00 a.m. and
pleaded with the workers to return to their jobs. After the three-day
strike contractors and union representatives agreed to a two-week extension
on talks last night. [more]

Business is getting better, John Livingston, president of the Tishman Construction, told the New York Times in a recent Q & A. “And some of the evidence of that is that some very significant projects in the last few months have restarted. One is called Revel, a large casino in Atlantic City. The other is the International Gem Tower in the Diamond District. They started a number of years ago; each stopped for about 18 months and started up again in the last six months.” [more]

Law firm Greenberg Traurig, which had the second biggest real estate division among New York City law firms according to The Real Deal’s 2010 ranking, added Peter Miller to its stable of real estate attorneys yesterday, the company said. Miller previously headed the real estate and finance practice group at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Stroock & Stroock & Lavin, where he represented real estate firms in major transactions throughout the city, most notably Silverstein Properties in its acquisition of a leasehold interest in the World Trade Center. Miller went on to represent Silverstein in negotiations for five separate leases covering more than 10 million square feet. Miller also represented Bear Stearns in its acquisition of 383 Madison Avenue, Edward J. Miskoff Equities in five transactions throughout the city and the Gotham Organization in the development of 200 West 72nd Street. TRD [more]

Retail rents in Lower Manhattan jumped 23 percent in the spring of 2011
compared to the fall of 2010, according to a report released today by
the Real Estate Board of New York, and apparently that’s because of the  news coverage World Trade Center construction has garnered. “Lower
Manhattan has been receiving national and international attention as a
result of the progress at the World Trade Center site. The rise in
asking rents for retail space shows that retailers are looking to
capitalize on the increase in pedestrian traffic expected there in the
years to come,” said Steven Spinola, REBNY’s president. TRD Comments

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