Officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey are contemplating selling the agency’s real estate.
A new report released over the weekend proposes a plan that includes selling some of the authority’s properties, including the World Trade Center, according to the Wall Street Journal. The idea to sell the organization’s real estate has long been pushed and the Port Authority has gradually sold off some properties over the past 15 years.
In the new report, however, selling the properties is at the center of a proposed overhaul of the Port Authority. How the plan will be executed is still unclear and it could take a number of years to sell the organization’s 90 percent stake in One World Trade Center.
“We’ve spent billions of dollars to build the World Trade Center, I’m not getting rid of it on a fire sale,” Port Authority Chair John Degnan told the newspaper. “I believe in the end it is going to be a profitable venture and will result in the Port Authority financially benefiting from its sale.”
The report was issued at the same time that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced they were vetoing a Port Authority reform plan that had been passed by the legislatures of both states.[WSJ] — Claire Moses