Freedom Tower? Not ‘Til 2011

Mon, 20 Feb 2006 09:43:27 -0400

Architect David Childs with Governor Pataki.

Remember 2003, when the Governor showed up at a big breakfast bash near Ground Zero to spank the rebuilding effort into submission? A lot of his focus was on the Freedom Tower. He promised a ground-breaking for this April, and a 2008 opening. According to Charlie Bagli at the Times, nobody thinks he'll get it:

Officials no longer put any stock in a 2008 completion date. Indeed, under the current schedule, Larry A. Silverstein, the developer who controls the lease at the trade center, would not finish building and leasing the tower until the end of 2011.

But the Freedom Tower and the decisions made in 2003 loom large today over the very public slugfest involving Mr. Silverstein, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land, over what is going to be built, who is going to build it and when.

And then, how much of the building's nearly three million square feet of office space will be rentable? Nobody knows.

- Tom McGeveran

Observer » Freedom Tower? Not ‘Til 2011

Freedom Tower? Not ‘Til 2011