NEW YORK CITY-Negotiations over the amount of Liberty Bond financing allocated for the World Trade Center site will continue. Those involved had hoped to reach an agreement prior to a New York City Industrial Development Agency meeting today.
"I am disappointed that we could not resolve all of the issues in time for tomorrow's IDA board meeting," World Trade Center leaseholder and developer Larry A. Silverstein said in a statement last night. "I remain optimistic that we, the city and the state will come to resolution in the near future. I share the mayor's and governor's desire to expedite construction of the entire World Trade Center site, and it is vitally important that we continue to work toward a final agreement."
In April, Silverstein Properties applied for an additional $3.5 billion in Liberty Bond financing with the IDA to go toward the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. The developer plans the 1,776-ft Freedom Tower to be the first building on the WTC site.
In January, the IDA had given the go ahead for $475 million of New York Liberty Bonds to be used for the reconstruction and permanent financing of Silverstein's nearby 7 World Trade Center. Last year, during in a series of city council hearings on funding for Lower Manhattan redevelopment, John Lieber, senior vice president of World Trade Center LLC, a Silverstein Properties company, issued a call that the funds remaining in the Liberty Bond pool should be allocated and preserved for the rebuilding of the site.
The Liberty Bond Program is designed to provide tax-exempt bond financing for major projects to revitalize Lower Manhattan and New York City using $8 billion in bond issuance authority. It is part of the $21-billion package of spending and tax provisions that New York received in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
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