Silverstein Asserts His Right
To Build at Twin Towers Site
Feb. 3, 2003 -- Larry Silverstein, the leader of the group that holds the lease on the World Trade Center complex destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., has written to a key redevelopment official, asserting his group's right to build 10 million square feet of office space and to pick the architect to design it.
The nine-page letter, which is uncharacteristically stern in tone for the normally discreet New York developer, could signal a legal fight if Mr. Silverstein is bypassed in the process and further complicates the rebuilding effort as governmental bodies get set to pare down a list of site designers as early as this week.
"He wants to be cooperative, but he also wants to be paid attention to," says a person close to Mr. Silverstein's side.
In the letter, Mr. Silverstein pointedly cites the lease documents his group signed with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the complex's owner, in July 2001, weeks before the terrorist attacks that destroyed the Twin Towers.
The leases "expressly contemplate" that his group has the right to build "substitute buildings," he said, if the complex was destroyed and it wasn't "feasible, prudent or commercially reasonable" to rebuild the old towers.
Mr. Silverstein also noted that his group has already hired a design firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP of New York, to prepare a site plan.
The letter is addressed to John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the 16-member state-city body created in November of 2001 to oversee the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site and Lower Manhattan. The letter was also sent to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Jack Sinagra, chairman of the Port Authority, which owns the 16-acre site, as well as to New York Gov. George Pataki, who created the LMDC, and New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey, who with Mr. Pataki controls the Port Authority's board.
An LMDC spokesman said: "We respect Larry Silverstein's opinion, along with the views of so many who have an interest in the future of the World Trade Center site -- including the public."
A spokesman for the Port Authority said, "Larry Silverstein is an important stakeholder in this process." A spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg said Mr. Silverstein is an "important voice," but "his is not the only voice." Mr. McGreevey's spokesman declined to comment. A spokesman for Mr. Pataki couldn't be reached Friday.
Mr. Silverstein was unavailable for comment, said his spokesman, Howard Rubenstein.
Monday, an ad hoc panel that includes Mr. Whitehead, Port Authority board members, and representatives of Messrs. Pataki and Bloomberg, is scheduled to meet to narrow a list of possible designers of the site to two, from six.
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