NEW YORK CITY-Five months of negotiations between SilversteinProperties Inc. and the Port Authority of New York and New Jerseyhave culminated in a plan to provide SPI with up to $1.6 billion inpublic financing on the developer’s World Trade Center towers. Thedeal was ratified Thursday at a meeting of the Port’s board ofcommissioners.

Originallyannounced in broad outline on March 25, the agreementwas to be hammered out during a 120-day period of negotiationsbetween SPI and the Port. The late-July timeframe to completenegotiations came and went without an agreement being ratified, adelay that led to published reports speculating on whether the dealwould be announced before the ninth anniversary of 9/11.

In a statement from the Port, the development plan ratifiedThursday is said to allow “the rational phase-in of the site’soffice towers with financing risk shared among all stakeholders.”That translates into varying levels of public backstop for SPI’sthree towers, including essentially none on the planned Tower2.