Praise be to ground zero. (ArchPaper)

It was only a year ago that the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church beside the World Trade Center looked doomed, at least to a side street if not all together. But Andrew Cuomo, in one of his first direct acts at the Port Authority, brokered a deal to put the church back in its pride-of-place spot across from the 9/11 Memorial, as George Pataki promised a decade ago.

The Architect's Newspaper looks into the new arrangement and turns up some new details about the plans for the church, as well as some new renderings that make a compelling case for the church.

Throughout the planning and the lawsuit Koutsomitis said his architecture office acted as a clearinghouse for all aspects of the negotiations. “It’s very rare, but it’s a special relationship with the client group,” explained Koutsomitis of the combination design, legal, and financial team.

Blessing? More like a curse. (NY Post)

Currently there is no final design, the architect said, but it will be clearly identified as an Eastern Orthodox church. While the old St. Nicholas contrasted with Yamasaki’s twin towers, the new church will play off the new buildings, the architect said, describing the new structure as a transparent “cube that’s floating on air.” If the current schedule holds, the church could open its doors by 2014.

O.K., so, even if that is not what the project is going to look like, compare that rendering to the earlier one, and then try and tell us that doesn't make a considerable difference. Just ask Daniel Libeskind—soaring words and pretty pictures make all the difference in the world.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Recently, The Observer chronicled the trials of the church, which remains unable to rebuild its parish following a very public spat with the Port Authority, the agency overseeing the ground zero reconstruction effort. Part of the problem that led St. Nicholas to file a lawsuit against the Port last month is that the agency claims the church kept asking for more money for its new project, a far larger church and interfaith community center. Church officials flatly deny this.

It turns out this is not the first time the church has been offered a large sum of money to move. A reader who used to work in government recently informed The Observer that Milstein Properties, one of the city's grand old development families, had offered the church millions of dollars to relocate, along with an offer to build a new facility around the corner. (Milstein owned all the land around the church except for the church itself.)

A number of other properties on the block accepted the deal, including a Catholic Church, according to our reader. But not St. Nicholas. "It was considered a runaway church," the official said. 

Paul Milstein, who ran the company with his brother Seymour in those days, was said to have been in charge of the deal, though he passed away last year. His son, and the current head of the company, Howard Milstein, could not be reached for comment, as he is travelling.

The Reverand Mark Arey, the spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, told The Observer that he did not have direct knowledge of the Milstein deal but he had heard about it from other church officials. "The church just never sold out," Father Arey said. "Churches generally don't sell out unless there's a tremendous offer or a spectacular need."

The Milsteins wound up selling the 18,889-square-foot property to the state in 2005 for $59 million--about as much money as the church is seeking from the Port for its new project. It was twice the amount that had been offered a year earlier, but the state acquiesced because the land was seen as essential to the construction of the vehicle security center at the new World Trade Center site. It is the exact same argument that has been made for taking the St. Nicholas property, though the Port has yet to pay for it. Whether it will remains to be seen, most likely in court.

UPDATE: A St. Nicholas parishioner writes in to say that the church has actually declined a number of offers over the years, including some predating the World Trade Center: "The church had ample opportunity to 'vacate the premises,' but chose to remain on its sacred and hallowed ground--until a spectacular need came along. The church placed its eternal integrity as a house of worship above the temporal value of real estate."

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

The station will now cost a total of $3.44 billion, up from an initial $2.2 billion, after it was determined the signature spines that comprise the structure's roof would cost an additional $180 million. It is the first time the project's budget has risen since executive director Chris Ward released his overarching review of the entire World Trade Center site more than two years ago, when the project was budgeted at $3.26 billion.

Ward told The Times that while not ideal, this situation is within the realm of acceptability because most of the PATH project had been bid out, so the odds of prices rising further were remote, and the need to strengthen the structure was crucial. Also, that is why there is a reserve fund, "for these types of circumstances."

Yet if the Port could find money to fortify Calatrava's design, why could it not execute plans for the new St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox church on the other end of the site? On the one hand, this underscores the Port's arguments, that the decision to terminate the church's plan was not one of economics but logistics, that the church was being too demanding and it could not be reasonably accommodated.

But this latest announement also underscores a storyline delivered both by the church and government officials who discussed the matter with The Observer for a feature last week. Not long after the Port made its initial deal with the church, Lehman Brothers collapsed, the world changed, and $60 million began to look like a lot of money to an public authority whose finances were suddenly a little less certain. 

Even if money remains a non-issue with the church--as the Port told to The Observer after the Calatrava announcement--the fact that the transit hub continues to be a source of ballooning budgets and uncertainty serves as a reminder of just how complicated and uncontrollable ground zero can be.

There are still plenty of pieces, such as the completion of Silverstein's two towers, the Performing Arts Center and the Deutsch Bank site that remain an open question. Adding yet another volatile piece to that mix, as the church very well would have, could have only made keeping things moving at the major projects like the memorial and One World Trade even more difficult than the hardest job in the city already is. Indeed, it remains to be seen how many more hiccups there could still be.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

Hundreds of feet below, on the other side of the 16-acre site, nearly 1,000 Greek Orthodox congregants had gathered for the annual vespers honoring St. Nicholas. The faithful crowded about the trailers, heavy machinery and sundry materiel of ground zero, preparing for a ceremony they had undertaken annually ever since the attacks of Sept. 11 destroyed their tiny church honoring the patron of sailors, bankers and bakers. TV crews stood ready to film.

Three Port Authority officials told them to cut.

"In nine years, we'd never seen anything like it," the Rev. Mark Arey, a spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, told The Observer last week. "They were hiding their badges; they were clearly uncomfortable doing this. Only when one of our priests put in a direct call to Chris Ward did they relent."

Mr. Ward, the executive director of the bistate Port Authority, has had to answer many such calls since taking over in 2008. All ask the same thing: Why has the authority reneged on a three-year-old deal with the church to give it a grand new home at 130 Liberty Street, something promised personally by Governor George Pataki back in 2004?

The church has found every opportunity, including within the recent "ground zero mosque" mania, to remind everyone of its plight. The December vespers were another deliberate reminder, a mingling of protest and sacrality. "Church left out of 9/11 renewal," declared the next day's USA Today. (The local church had agreed to no media at the vespers, prompting the Port Authority's intervention.)

Now, even with all the recent progress at the once international punch line, the church last week filed a federal lawsuit that could bring everything at the site to a halt. Again.

In 1916, a growing Greek community bought an old four-story, wood-framed tavern at 155 Cedar Street; placed a belfry on top; and called it St. Nicholas. It was the only religious institution destroyed on 9/11.

Well before it was decided what would become of the rest of the site, it was agreed that the church would be rebuilt. As the site's master plan began to take shape, the church was granted a more prominent plot at 130 Liberty Street, atop the Vehicle Security Center. "It always seemed like it was a settled issue where it was going to be," a former Port Authority official said. "It just kept getting inherited and passed off from one group to another. It wasn't until later when they really realized what that would mean, building on top of the security center."

Like God directing Noah, the message the church took from the Pataki administration was one of trust and deliverance. But instead of captaining the ark, the church was but cargo. "Other than us pledging to rebuild the church, that was all that was said," a Pataki administration official told The Observer. "It never got down to that level of detail." (The former governor continues to lobby on the church's behalf.)

As plans were drawn and redrawn between the numerous stakeholders, the church in 2005 set about creating schematics for its own project, hiring architect Nicholas Koutsomitis. The plans called for a new chapel along with a non-denominational interfaith center--24,000 square feet total.

One person described it as "trading a brownstone for St. Patrick's." An obvious exaggeration, it belies the concern many public officials, especially those post-Pataki, had when they saw the project's parameters. Still, the church has a point. In light of the development rights at 155 Cedar, it is not building anything larger than it would legally be allowed to. "We were never asking for more," Mr. Koutsomitis said, even though were he building on the old site, he would effectively be replacing the four-story parish with a 20-story one.

In spring 2006, the Pataki administration and the Port Authority reached its deal with Larry Silverstein, the twin towers' leaseholder, to build out the site, but an agreement was never formally reached with the church. When the Spitzer administration began to grapple with what its predecessor had promised, it was somewhat taken aback but still happy to work with St. Nicholas.

Even as plans were drawn up to bring JPMorgan Chase to the former Deutsche Bank building site behind the church, its new tower was designed with a "beer belly" for its trading floors overhanging the church, quite the accommodation by one of the world's most powerful banks--and yet another gonzo project of the real estate boom. 

Then the BlackBerrys began lighting up.

A morning meeting between the church, JPMorgan and government officials was just starting in a conference room inside 115 Broadway on March 10, 2009, when phones began buzzing. They were checked and set aside, as preparations continued, but the buzzing continued unabated: The Times' Client 9 scoop was about to upend everything.

"I thought it was a prank at first," a person present said.

The meeting was canceled in preparation for Governor Spitzer's press conference. The church continued to wait, continued to make its plans.

"The Port did not want this fight," a person working at ground zero said. "Let me underscore that--they did not want this at all."

In one of his first acts as the authority's executive director, in early 2008, Chris Ward, a Paterson appointee, announced he was preparing a report that would identify all major issues at ground zero and create a timeline for addressing them. Issued in July of that year, it was full of bad news, but Mr. Ward promised to forge a path forward.

Just weeks later, eager to show signs of progress, he announced an agreement with the church for its land. St. Nicholas would receive $20 million toward its new building, as well as up to $40 million for additional infrastructure work to support a larger church structure atop the security center.

This is where things began to unravel, in no small part due to the recession ushered in by Lehman Brothers' collapse a few months later.

The July announcement was never an official deal, and it was set aside while the authority focused on other matters at the site. Both sides continued to negotiate and worked on drawing up plans to finalize the deal. Father Arey said the church was accommodating throughout, scaling down its plans when the Port Authority asked. The Port Authority argues that whenever it reached a tentative agreement, "the goal posts would move," spokesman John Kelly said. "At a certain point, negotiations had to end or risk delaying the WTC project further."

In March 2009, the matter came to a head. The authority sent a standard term sheet and asked for comment. According to the church's lawsuit, the document's real purpose was to find signs of disagreement so the Port Authority could cancel the deal. Mr. Kelly said the church had ample warning, and that it was demanding the impossible: control over the design of the park and security center.

Negotiations ceased, the deal was off, and the two sides have barely talked since. Mr. Ward announced that the authority would go ahead with construction of the security center, and St. Nicholas was welcome to build on its original land once the authority was done with it.

As is so often the case at ground zero, conspiracy theories abound.

"First they asked us to shrink the church, which basically meant taking off the cross," Mr. Koutsomitis, the architect, said. "Then they move us back to 155 Cedar. I think someone decided they did not want a church on this prominent site at ground zero."

Some believe Larry Silverstein wants the site. Others point to Mr. Ward. George Demos, a onetime unsuccessful G.O.P. Congressional candidate from Long Island, blasted a press release the day after the December 2010 vespers ceremony: "Atheist Blocking Ground Zero Church." Mr. Ward had once told a trade publication, "I'm probably the biggest non-believer in terms of religion. If you are not going to believe in God, you have to be smarter than the people who do, because you have to answer tougher questions about why you don't." He was responding to a question about why he has a master's in divinity from Harvard, a fact left out by critics. (The church's suit also includes the quotation.)

As things stand now, more than two and a half years after the July agreement, a federal ruling in the church's favor could create months of delays at ground zero and add hundreds of millions in costs. 

The authority won't even entertain that scenario--though those involved in the fight over the years describe the church as tough and aggressive. They had lost their home. The other stakeholders were getting new ones, so why not them?

"They failed to realize the world had changed again," the former Port Authority official said. "They were used to getting so much."

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

Last week, the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church announced a suit against the Port Authority over the agency's refusal to rebuild the chapel in its original location at 130 Liberty Street. But it could be too late, as the agency and its contractors at Ground Zero appear to have designed the church right off the site.

The chapel was destroyed on 9/11, and the Port Authority would rather it was rebuilt on a neighboring lot, at 155 Cedar Street.

If the Greek Archdiocese of New York had its way, the new St. Nicholas would be located atop the vehicle screening center. This massive security complex will inspect all deliveries to the World Trade Center before allowing them into a spaghetti of tunnels underneath the 16-acre site. It is meant to keep the ballet of daily deliveries and visitors -- there is ample tour bus parking -- from interfering with the goings on above as well as providing the best security possible to those buildings by segregating all incoming vehicles before they enter the site.

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The screening center is primarily located below ground, and will look from the sidewalk like just another plot of land. Really, it is the roof of a massive building, and in order to build St. Nicholas on top, the center's structure would have to be supportive enough.

According to the Post's Steve Cuozzo, the Port Authority has already designed and bought construction material for much of the project, and in its current form, the screening center would be structurally incapable of supporting the church, or any other building for that matter.

Not only the amount of steel which the PA ordered over a year ago, but also the way it's being fabricated to house the underground "helix," is inadequate to hold up the church, which would be larger than the original and was to include public meditation space and other facilities.

In fact, according to our sources, the way the VSC has been designed beneath 130 Liberty St. now makes it impossible to construct the church, which the archdiocese hopes to compel the PA to help it build and partly fund.

An attorney for the Greek Archdiocese of New York insists this is a bunch of "baloney," telling Cuozzo, "They didn't order enough steel, order more steel. Anybody in litigation can say they can't do something." Yet an engineer points out that this would not only cost millions of dollars but also delays, which could aggrivate the site's real power broker, Larry Silverstein.

Maybe, just maybe, the Port Authority can save itself the headache and give some of those millions to the church instead, so they can build something a little grander next door.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

In the grand scheme of Ground Zero rebuilding, the church is both literally and figuratively the least of the Port Authority's concerns. The transit agency has four huge towers, a memorial, a transit hub and a security network to oversee. This may explain why the authority broke off negotiations with the church two years ago so it could begin work on a security center that will screen all vehicles making deliveries to the 16-acre site. The church was once located where the screening center is now planned.

Now St. Nicholas is preparing to sue the authority to win its land back, according to DNAinfo. That possibility seems remote, given security center construction, but a deal for another site or reparations might be struck in the courts. The Port Authority said it has once again reached out to try and address the issue, but there appears to be some confusion:

Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward said two months ago that he planned to restart negotiations with the church soon, and a Port spokesman said Friday the agency recently sent a letter to the church.

But Arey said none of the church's leaders or anyone at the archdiocese had received a letter.

"I don't know where they sent it," [church spokesman Mark] Arey said. "There has been absolute silence."

Perhaps the Port sent the letter to the church's old address.

mchaban@observer.com