Port Authority misses WTC bathtub deadline

Real Estate Weekly,  Jan 2, 2008  by Daniel Geiger

Tags: World Trade Center

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The Port Authority announced on Monday that it will be delayed in handing over portions of the World Trade Center site where work on two major new office towers is scheduled to begin.

The Port Authority has been preparing the parcels by excavating concrete, rock and soil down to 80 feet below street level so that construction on Three and Four World Trade Center, two of the three office towers that developer Silverstein Properties is building on the site, could start at the beginning of January.

Instead, on the day that it had been scheduled to turn over the sites, the Port Authority released a statement saying the parcels will be delivered up to six weeks later than planned. Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority, said that the delays were the result of the complexity and size of the excavation work and also because there has been an unanticipated amount of rock that has made the job more difficult.

"This is a complex construction process and a very large foundation that we're building," Coleman said. "We want to make sure that it's done right."

The Port Authority's statement said that 90% of the work is finished and that the remaining excavation for Four World Trade Center would be complete by the middle of January.

The Port Authority said that the site for Three World Trade Center will be ready in mid-February. Coleman said that the delays would not set back the planned 2011 completion date for the buildings and also stated that the Port Authority didn't expect any delays in readying the parcel where the third office tower that Silverstein is building on the site, Two World Trade Center, will rise. That site will be given to Silverstein in June 2008.

But at a Port Authority board meeting on December 18, executive director Tony Shorris, when asked to comment on the December 31 deadline for Three and Four World Trade Center, had said that the Port Authority would deliver the bathtub, the name given to the World Trade Center site in its current excavated state, on time.

A source said Silverstein had been alerted by the Port Authority about the delays last week, what would have been short notice for the significant work that was scheduled to begin on Monday at the site.

In order to start building the two towers, equipment and materials were to be delivered to the site and construction was to commence on the buildings' foundations.

That initial work would include excavation for both towers' footings, core structural supports that are anchored in the bedrock below the site.

The source indicated that the delays would not disrupt the arrangements that Silverstein has with the contractors who will carry out the work because Silverstein had anticipated the Port Authority might not deliver the sites on time and had prepared for that possibility in its construction plans.

According to the agreement that Silverstein and the Port Authority reached in mid-2006 to redevelop the World Trade Center site, the Port Authority will pay Silverstein $300,000 for every day it is late, a penalty that could total $13.5 million if the delays do in fact stretch to mid-February.

The payments are supposed to compensate the $215,000 of rent that Silverstein pays per day for its ground lease on the site and the additional construction costs that it will have to cover as a result of the delays.

"The Port Authority and its construction professionals have made great progress in excavating and constructing the bathtub along the eastern side of the World Trade Center site," said Dara McQuillan, a spokesman for Silverstein Properties.

"It is a challenging assignment that must be done thoroughly and completely. We appreciate their efforts and are confident they will be able to deliver sites for construction of Towers 3 and 4 in the very near future.

"Our team of architects, engineers and builders has been preparing for more than a year, and we will advance procurement and other pre-construction activities, so we can hit the ground running as soon as the site preparation work is completed."

In a follow-up statement issued later on Monday, Janno Lieber, director of World Trade Center Development for Silverstein, echoed that conciliatory tone, stating, "We appreciate how much the Port Authority has accomplished this year, and a few extra weeks to complete everything is a minor bump in the road in the context of this entire project."

By Daniel Geiger

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