Last week, the Port Authority and World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein struck a deal to jumpstart (again!) rebuilding at Ground Zero. The plan, which involves financing from the Port Authority, city and state as well as a promise from Silverstein to find private investment, was hailed as a "breakthrough." But today Post columnist Steve Cuozzo writes, "The new World Trade Center will be a mere shadow of the original in terms of office space -- at best. At worst, it will be a shadow of a shadow, with as little as 2.7 million square feet available for private-sector use compared with 10 million pre-9/11."
He points out the the city "needs new, state-of-the-art space to bolster an inventory in which more than 65 percent of existing office buildings are at least 50 years old. Great companies will need to look out of town for the electronic and environmental imperatives they can no longer do without." Cuozzo also breaks down the square footage, noting that the majority of square footage in Silverstein's 4 WTC and the PA's 1 WTC (aka Freedom Tower) "will be used by government agencies -- rather than by the financial, media and law firms that have the strongest need for them (and can pay market-rate rents, in contrast to subsidized rates for the public users)."
The Post adds in a disbelieving editorial "'Breakthrough' Baloney": "Years of delay at the pit -- thanks to feckless public officials, from Mayor Bloomberg and the Albany triumvirate of George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson -- have shamed New York. Nearly a decade after 9/11, Ground Zero remains a huge... construction site."
