Governor Andrew Cuomo is calling for the board of the Port Authority
of New York & New Jersey to approve the consolidation of the
Moynihan Station Development Corporation and Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation’s operations into the Port Authority, according to a
statement released today. He is also recommending that Patrick Foye,
currently the Governor’s Deputy Secretary of Economic Development, serve as executive director of the Port Authority, replacing the
recently resigned Chris Ward.
“Too many different agencies doing the same or closely related work
makes little sense,” Cuomo said in a statement. “The Port Authority is
best situated to oversee the development at Moynihan Station and the
orderly wind down of the LMDC and these changes will consolidate
responsibility within the [Port] Authority.”
Ward has recently been critical of the Port Authority’s finances and
political unwillingness to raise tolls for capital projects.
“The Port Authority must meet its potential as a major economic engine
that plans for the region and attracts business on an international
scale,” Cuomo said in today’s statement. “We must also improve its
operations and maximize the value out of every dollar spent so that it
is financially responsible and respects the tax.and toll payers.”
Both Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York,
and Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades
Council of Greater New York, praised the selection of Foye.
Foye’s extensive “management experience and keen knowledge of New
York’s fiscal [situation] make him especially suited for transforming
the Port Authority into an economic engine,” Spinola said in the
statement.
“We and others in the business community have worked with [Foye] and
are confident that he will bring competent and practical management to
the Port Authority’s vital role in maintaining and expanding our
regional transportation assets and completing the rebuilding of the
World Trade Center site,” LaBarbera stated. — Miranda Neubauer