PA’s Ward lays out WTC timetable

Chris Ward

With the final World Trade Center rebuilding deal now in place between developer Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, Chris Ward, the agency’s executive director, laid out a timetable for completion of Silverstein’s planned towers. If Silverstein finds an anchor tenant for his Tower 3 by the end of 2012, the building could be complete less than two years later, Ward told the Observer. If not, “he would stop at that point,” Ward said, leaving the project, which would be around five or six stories at that point, to stall while it awaits the tenant “of size and financial commitment” that Silverstein needs to qualify for the financing. Meanwhile, Ward said he expects Tower 4 to be completed by the end of 2013. All of the new office space downtown will require ramped up transportation, he added, which is now threatened by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s cancellation of the planned rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River. “That project could have some real ramification if it were to be significantly delayed or even stopped,” Ward said, just before Christie pulled the plug on the project, citing budget concerns. [NYO]

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