Larry Silverstein and Ground Zero
Larry Silverstein was slated to meet with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey today for a sure-to-be-tense discussion about the developer’s recent financing proposal for his planned Ground Zero towers. Silverstein has offered to nix plans for his 79-story Tower 2, and instead devote the funds to his other two skyscrapers, for which he’d pony up between $150 million and $250 million of his own money. The Port Authority is expected to demand more details on Silverstein’s proposal, with which the agency was reportedly unimpressed. The feuding parties have until the middle of March to agree on a construction timetable for the towers, as per an arbitration panel ruling last month. CBS’s “60 Minutes” drew attention to the protracted dispute Sunday night when it aired a segment about the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site that shed an unflattering light on the Port Authority. So did Mayor Michael Bloomberg last week, when he said on his weekly radio show that the agency “should just get out of [Silverstein’s] way.”