Mr. Coscia's tenure as the agency's chairman ended the other day when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie replaced him with former New Jersey attorney general David Samson, although Mr. Coscia will continue to serve on the authority's board. During his tenure--the longest chairmanship of the authority in recent history--Mr. Coscia developed a long-term, $29.5 billion master plan that will modernize the region's transportation system and influence commuting patterns for the rest of this century. But his enduring legacy surely will be his efforts to redevelop ground zero, a task that required diplomacy, compassion and sheer determination. Fortunately, Mr. Coscia was well suited to that task. Progress at the site is due in no small part to Mr. Coscia's patience and ability to work with all of the site's stakeholders.

Mr. Coscia's achievements are easy to overlook because he managed to call very little attention to himself during his years at the authority's helm. But anybody with an interest in moving people and goods around the New York metropolitan area--and that includes multiple millions of people--owe him a debt of gratitude for his vision and his leadership. He stepped into a terrible, tragic situation at the Port Authority eight years ago. And while the heartbreak of 9/11 was beyond his--or anybody's--ability to make whole, he quietly went about the task of rebuilding and moving forward. It was no easy assignment, but he performed it with quiet competence. Well done.

Like virtually everything else involved with the World Trade Center redevelopment, the official phasing out of the name “Freedom Tower” has been a slow process.

The moniker designated by Governor Pataki in 2003 for the site’s tallest building—which is slated to rise to 1776 feet, if you count the tower’s 408-foot antenna—the name has never been popular with the Spitzer and Paterson administrations and it seems to have been slowly (or delicately) drifting off official references.

But on Thursday, March 26—the same day that the Port Authority signed the first lease for the building—officials acknowledged that the name has been dropped, at least by the agency.

“As we market the building, we will ensure that the building is presented in the best possible way,” Tony Coscia, chairman of the Port Authority’s board, told reporters after the lease signing ceremony. “1 World Trade Center is its address. It’s the address that we’re using. It’s the one that’s easiest for people to identify with, and frankly, we’ve gotten a very interested and warm reception to it.”

The agency's executive director, Chris Ward, suggested that if Freedom Tower remains as the name, it will be a "popular" name, not one of the owners.

"There are a lot of buildings that have popular names," he said. "If the Freedom Tower is the popular name as people think about this, that will be the choice of the people and how they think of downtown. On the other hand, this is a piece of real estate. It has an address. Legally, it is 1 World Trade Center."

At least in press releases, the Port Authority took its first step away from the symbolic handle in mid-2007, when it started referring to the tower as “1 World Trade Center, the Freedom Tower” in various contract authorizations. (An agency spokesman, at the time, denied there had been a shift).

Then, after Governor Paterson installed Mr. Ward as director for the agency in May 2008, the name seemed to drop further from view. In public remarks, Mr. Ward seemed to always call it “One World Trade Center,” though in agency reports and press releases, it maintained its designation as “1 World Trade Center, the Freedom Tower.” That is, until Thursday, when the Port Authority’s press release on its high-priced 190,000-square-foot lease with Vantone Industrial Co. relegated the term to a parenthetical: “PORT AUTHORITY AND VANTONE INDUSTRIAL SIGN FIRST LEASE FOR ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER (THE FREEDOM TOWER).”

At the press conference, reporters wondered what had become of Pataki’s name.

Of course, the Freedom Tower has never been all that much about real estate—with a price tag over $3 billion, it’s perhaps the most expensive skyscraper ever per square foot, and is considered a likely terrorist target. So, whether or not the name can ever be dropped from the popular lexicon is an open question.

For what it’s worth, Vantone, as the first tenant to sign a lease, is planning to use its six floors for a purpose that fits far better with the current name preferred by officials. The Chinese company plans to use the space as something of an incubator for Chinese companies doing business in America, a purpose that has local officials and the Partnership for New York City (the city’s main advocacy group for big business) rather excited.

The deal caps off years of back and forth for Vantone. Its chairman, Lun Feng, said through a translator that it’s been 1,285 days since he first discussed the concept with the Partnership’s president, Kathy Wylde, and he’s been back and forth to New York for 30 trips. Prior lease deals at 7 World Trade Center and 195 Broadway fell apart late in the negotiation process, so after the papers were signed today, there seemed to be a collective sigh of relief.

The price for the space is rather high, particularly given the uncertainty in the economy. Vantone will pay $85 a foot (though they’re also getting a $5 a foot subsidy from the state) for a 20-year lease on floors 64 through 69 of the 102-story tower.

Update: 5:35 p.m.

This all does not come as welcome news to Mr. Pataki. In a statement, he attacked the decision to drop the name, saying that 1 World Trade Center and 2 World Trade Center should be retired as addresses.

"The Freedom Tower is not simply another piece of real estate and not just a name for marketing purposes,” he said in the statement. “In design and name it is symbolic of our commitment to rise above the attacks of September 11th. Where One and Two World Trade Center once stood there will be a memorial with two voids to honor the heroes we lost, in my view those addresses should never be used again."

So why not add a new $7.6 billion New Jersey Transit tunnel to the list?

That’s what the Port Authority thinks, anyhow, as its chairman Anthony Coscia today called on Congress to include money for the tunnel as part of a stimulus package that is expected to be negotiated in coming weeks. Mr. Coscia's remarks came during a business symposium in Jersey City.

The project, a set of two tunnels and new platforms by Penn Station known as Access to the Region’s Core, is awaiting federal funding to the tune of $3 billion in order to move forward. The project, which already has $4.5 billion in funding from the Port Authority and New Jersey Transit, has wide support, including the backing of James Simpson, administrator for the Federal Transit Administration, which would fund the project.

One small problem: The FTA’s well of cash for such projects has run dry. It won’t likely be replenished for some time to come, leaving the near-term fate of the project uncertain.

Thus, Mr. Coscia seems to see opportunity knocking in the form of a stimulus package. Transit advocates and some in Congress have called for much of that stimulus to come in the form of dollars for infrastructure projects, as big public works create thousands of jobs.

“A federal economic stimulus package that includes ARC funding would allow us to get shovels in the ground in the first half of 2009 and get people to work as quickly as possible,” Mr. Coscia said in a prepared statement.

Based on a memo he sent to the other board members today, the meetings will allow for monthly updates on cost and schedules, drawing a sharp contrast with years past (the first revision of dates and cost since 2006 is slated to be delivered in September).

The new meetings, to be held near the site, "will create an opportunity for the Board to give staff more policy direction regarding the rebuilding effort," Mr. Coscia wrote.

More from the memo:

$3,500 for 10 people to eat at a “vice chairman table” at the New York Building Congress's Leadership Awards Luncheon on April 17, during which the Port Authority’s chairman and executive director presented an award to construction executive Dan Tishman, whose firm is building the Freedom Tower for the Port Authorty;

$1,300 for two tickets to the New York Building Congress Industry Recognition Dinner at the Grand Hyatt, Oct. 19, 2006;

$1,100 for 20 people to eat at an Association for a Better New York (ABNY) breakfast March 2 with Governor Eliot Spitzer;

$1,200 for 20 people to hear the same Governor Spitzer speak about six weeks later at a Crain’s New York Business breakfast;

$550 to reserve a 10-person table at an ABNY event last Nov. 16, featuring Senator Hillary Clinton;

$550 for a 10-top at another ABNY breakfast, May 15, headlined by Anthony E. Shorris, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey;

And, the highest figure in the pack: $7,381.80 for 10 tickets to the annual black-tie banquet thrown by the Real Estate Board of New York at the New York Hilton Hotel on Jan. 18, 2007.

Compared to those prices, $2 for a Peppermint Pattie at JFK sounds like a steal.

Chairman Anthony Coscia, a New Jersey appointee, said that taking over the Orange County airport, now run by a private company on behalf of New York State, was one possibility, but that the Port Authority may be able to help in other ways.

The move was a blow to Vice Chairman Charles Gargano, a New York appointee who had advocated instead in favor of better technology to expand capacity at the three city airports, and who was absent for the vote. But Coscia said that the increased capacity permitted by technological improvements, which are already under way, would soon be exhausted and that another airport to service the city was needed. Traffic at New York City's present airports is expected to reach 150 million annual passengers by 2025, compared to an estimated 100 million this year.

- Matthew Schuerman

Coincidentally--perhaps--the Port Authority introduced a brand new feature to its monthly board meetings last Thursday: a public comment period in which regular folks could make known their feelings about bridges, airports, the PATH, cargo and all the other things that the Port Authority gives us. No one took up the offer, but Chairman Anthony Coscia said it was part of an effort to make the bi-state agency more, um, accountable.

-Matthew Schuerman

- Max Abelson

Chairman Anthony Coscia acknowledged, "As we turn that framework into a definitive agreement, there will certainly be issues that we will have to tackle together, but they are issues largely about the way of implementing what the parties have decided to do."

P.A. Executive Director Kenneth Ringler took his bow in front of a gaggle of reporters. "Hopefully we are not going to be as newsworthy. You will just see construction going on. It has been nice knowing all you guys."

Construction on the Freedom Tower could begin within days. Aren't you excited?

-Matthew Schuerman

-Matthew Schuerman