Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

After well over a year of below-grade work, the Freedom Tower has reached the street level. Those in the Spitzer administration had often pointed to this milestone as a time at which the public would begin to understand that there was active work going on at Ground Zero.

Picture courtesy of the Port Authority; a few weeks ago we got a look at the construction site and shot our own photos.

Mayor Bloomberg pushed back against a pet initiative of Senator Schumer's today, saying the city “would never agree” to the Port Authority taking over the troubled Moynihan Station project.

Since March, Senator Schumer has been an outspoken proponent of moving the project under the purview of the Port Authority, saying the bi-state agency has the experience and the capability to complete the long-stalled project. Governor Paterson has supported the idea and said the move is likely, though some legislators are against it.

This morning Mr. Schumer tried to push the idea further, saying at a Crain’s New York breakfast that the state’s development agency, which currently has authority over the project, “is not capable of being a major development agency here.”

Shortly after, responding to questions from reporters, Mayor Bloomberg said, effectively, thanks but no thanks.  read more »

Should Governor Paterson indeed move the Moynihan Station project under the control of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, as he said he wants to do, at least two members of the State Assembly are poised to resist the action: Richard Gottfried, the district’s representative, and Richard Brodsky, the chairman of the committee that oversees public authorities.

“It’s a New York project; it ought to be run by a New York agency,” Mr. Brodsky said. “As a bi-state authority, they [the Port Authority] have been unresponsive, remote and immune to reform.”

Moving Moynihan from the state-controlled Empire State Development Corporation to the Port Authority would remove the Legislature from any direct control over the project, taking away its ability to pass laws about the plan or have approval power via the Public Authorities Control Board. (The PACB blocked the project from moving forward in a phased plan at the end of the Pataki administration.)  read more »

Governor David Paterson said today that he will likely move Moynihan Station under the purview of the Port Authority, dropping the imbroglio on the plate of soon-to-be-announced executive director Christopher Ward.

From The Observer’s Em Whitney:

David Paterson was on the WFAN "Boomer and Carton" show this morning, expressing frustration over the city’s stalled major development projects.

“What I’m going to do," Paterson told the hosts, "is probably move construction of Moynihan [Station] to the Port Authority, which I think has a better chance of getting it done quickly and I hope that we can start construction quickly enough that we can reverse plans that exist.

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Governor David Paterson is planning to appoint Christopher Ward as executive director of the Port Authority, with an announcement to come as early as this afternoon, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

Mr. Ward, the former commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection and a onetime Port Authority staffer, would take the slot left vacant by Anthony Shorris, who was asked to resign by Mr. Paterson last month to make way for a commissioner of his choosing.  read more »

The Brooklyn container shipping port operator that was once in the city’s crosshairs saw its lease approved by the Port Authority’s governing board today, finalizing a victory in a long-fought battle with the Bloomberg administration.

Led by former Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, the city wanted to replace the port operator, American Stevedoring Inc., with a bustling complex of marine-related industry, a conference center, a hotel, a beer garden, housing and an expanded cruise terminal.

The city argued that the container shipping site, on Piers 7 – 12 in Red Hook, was inefficient in that location—better suited for a place such as Sunset Park.

But as the city prepared to move ahead, American Stevedoring proved a tenacious opponent, lining up elected officials behind their cause and ultimately forcing the city to back down.  read more »

Yesterday morning we took a little jaunt downtown to check out the progress of the Freedom Tower. Accompanied by some folks from the Port Authority, which is developing the tower, we took a few shots from the construction site. Work is slated to rise above street level later this year.

For now, the sub-grade work seems to have a whole lot of workers installing a whole lot of cement and rebar. The site was mostly empty and the vast majority of the work has come within the last year. The Port Authority said they still are on schedule for completion in 2012.  read more »

Governor Paterson seems to be striving to put his signature on development projects around the state, as his decision to jettison the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Anthony Shorris, suggests.

Taken with the top job at the Empire State Development Corporation, the state’s top two posts responsible for economic development are now both free, awaiting appointments of Mr. Paterson’s choosing. Other than those two positions, the governor, now more than a month into his job, has freed up relatively few other top jobs thus far, accepting the resignations of the commissioner of the Division of Human Rights, and the acting state police superintendent.

The forced departure of Mr. Shorris, who oversaw billions of dollars in construction projects including the World Trade Center redevelopment, comes a week after Mr. Paterson declared he would “revisit the issue at Ground Zero” at a breakfast, referencing the potential for delays at the site. It was unclear exactly what he meant at the time, though now the remark seems to make more sense.

Many in and out of government described Mr. Shorris as an intelligent administrator, giving him high marks in his job at the Port Authority. Still, he was said to not have tremendous political acumen, occasionally leaving politicians and officials feeling rebuffed.  read more »

The Port Authority is looking for a firm to run the observation deck at the Freedom Tower, located on the 102nd floor of the building. (The above aerial image simulates what the view would look like.)

The 107th-floor observation deck in the old World Trade Center, named Top of the World, saw a flow of some 2 million visitors annually. That observation deck, handed over to private operator Ogden Entertainment in the mid-1990's, underwent a $6 million renovation in 1997, which included installing exhibits and videos for visitors, who paid an admission fee to the deck of $10 for an adult when it opened, according to a Times article at the time.

The Port Authority is planning to release a request for qualifications for operating the 18,000-square-foot observation deck next month, a document intended to survey the private sector for interest, according to a Port Authority spokeswoman. The agency plans to put the operating contract out to bid in the final three months of 2008.

The search comes after the Port put out a similar request earlier this year for an operator of a restaurant on the 100th and 101st floors of the building formally known as One World Trade Center.

Statements from Port Authority execs after the jump.  read more »

The directors of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey were not part of the mass of resignations requested by the Paterson administration.

The Times Union reported today that Governor Paterson’s staff has asked all directors and commissioners to put in their letters of resignation so as to give the new governor more flexibility in shaping his administration.  read more »

The Port Authority is putting up some cash to restore the iconic Eero Saarien-designed TWA Terminal at JFK International Airport, preparing it for another use yet to be determined. JetBlue is currently building its new terminal around the curvilinear structure, which was built in 1962 and is now far too small for a large airline.  read more »

Seven weeks after he had hoped to start construction, Larry Silverstein is ready to build at Ground Zero, as the Port Authority announced today it has finished excavations and cleared space for World Trade Center Towers 3 and 4.

The Port Authority missed its deadline of Jan. 1 to turn over the site to Silverstein Properties, and has owed $300,000 a day to the developer since, an amount that now exceeds $14 million. However, the cost is offset some, as the agency has said it offered a $10 million incentive to its contractors to finish before the deadline.

Completion of the towers is expected for 2011.  read more »

The troubles of the credit world seem to be hitting the public sector, too, as the Port Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority each got zero bidders on a $100 million set of bonds yesterday.

No bidders means no sale, and no sale means these public authorities aren’t getting the up-front money they want and need for capital projects. A lack of bidders on the state agencies’ bonds tends to be rare, finance experts say, as they tend to be rated high and reliable.  read more »

With the hole at Ground Zero gradually filling in, the Port Authority is putting out its feelers for a company to develop and manage a two-floor restaurant on the 100th and 101st floors of the 102-story Freedom Tower.

Tomorrow the Port Authority expects to issue a request for expression of interest (RFEI) for the restaurant, seeking early, nonbinding bids from developers.  read more »

The Port Authority has finished excavations in the bathtub for Tower 4 at the World Trade Center, making way for the Fumihiko Maki-designed, Larry Silverstein-developed, 64-story building.

The bi-state agency, which owns the site, said it is slated to finish excavations on the neighboring Tower 3 site in mid-February. The Port Authority missed its deadline of Jan. 1 to complete excavations on the two sites, and every day since, has owed Silverstein Properties $300,000 in penalties.  read more »

The Port Authority voted today to raise fares and tolls on bridges, tunnels and PATH trains, making life that much harder for those who lives outside of New York City. Such crossings as the Lincoln Tunnel and the George Washington Bridge, among others, will cost drivers another $2, bringing the out-of-pocket fare for each trip in to $8.

The fare hike came as a state commission prepares recommendations related to Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing proposal to levy a daily charge of $8 on cars that cross below 86th Street.  read more »

The Port Authority has finalized a deal with the mall-operating giant Westfield Group to develop and operate the 488,000 square feet of retail planned for the World Trade Center site. The group, now in a joint venture with the Port Authority, will control retail both above ground and below, both in transit-related concourses and in Larry Silverstein’s three towers.

The total cost of developing the retail is estimated to cost $1.45 billion, with Westfield paying $625 million, according to the Port Authority.  read more »

The Port Authority acknowledged today that it will miss its deadline of Jan. 1, 2008 to finish up excavations on the bathtub for World Trade Center Towers 3 and 4, thereby owing developer Larry Silverstein more than $12 million in delay penalties given the agency’s current timeline.

The Port Authority will owe Silverstein Properties $300,000 for every day until the excavations are done, and in a statement, the agency said that the bathtub would be ready for complete handover to Mr. Silverstein in about two to four weeks after mid-January (when they expect to finish excavations for Tower 4).

The Port Authority, which owns the World Trade Center site and is leasing the land for Towers 2, 3, and 4 to Silverstein, said in the statement that the hit from the penalties will in part be passed along to its contractors.

Silverstein, in a statement, said it will begin “pre-construction activities” as the firm waits on the Port.

Release after the jump.

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Governor Spitzer has nominated a bond lawyer to fill the vacancy at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey caused by Vice Chairman Charles Gargano's resignation: H.  read more »

Vornado Realty Trust will now pay four times as much for air rights over the Port Authority Bus Terminal than it would have under an earlier agreement abandoned four years ago, according to a deal announced today

“I’m sad,” Vornado’s Chairman and Chief Executive Steven Roth said after a press conference at the terminal this morning. “Let’s not talk about the past. But the answer is that what we are paying for the air rights is in sync with where commercial rents are.”

In other words, he can afford it. Otherwise, why bother renegotiating the deal?

Vornado and a partner, Ruben Companies, will pay roughly $500 million over the length of the 99-year-lease, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said. The 1.3 million-square-foot building will rise 42 stories over the north end of the terminal, using air rights transferred from the south end, according to Frank DiMola, deputy director of development at the Port Authority. The exact height was not available.

The earlier deal, which newspapers have valued variously at $110 million to $130 million, was struck in 2000, but was called off in 2003, apparently because of the poor economy. Since then, the real estate market has rebounded and even Eighth Avenue, once the tawdry edge of Times Square, has become respectable.

The revenue will pay for renovations at the terminal--making the brick interior a bit brighter, improving pedestrian circulation, adding bus gates—as well as pay for part of a $545 million bus garage that the Port Authority wants to build somewhere on the West Side.

Mr. Roth said that ground would be broken in two years and the tower would be completed in 2013.  read more »

No one, it seems, much cares for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Not the Post nor the Daily News nor David Steiner, a commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who at a committee meeting on the World Trade Center this morning said, “What I want to know is why you don’t let that Iranian guy come down there and let the construction workers take care of him.”

After being told that the session was public (not to mention being webcast—see minute 25:50 here), Mr. Steiner apologized.

The only agency around here that doesn't seem to have trouble coming up with money to do things is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, rich off road tolls, airport fees and the like. So last year it anted up $2 billion toward the Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel, which fans like to refer to as THE Tunnel.

On Thursday afternoon, its board voted to become a full partner in the endeavor along with New Jersey Transit, which will be running the trains that actually go through THE Tunnel, connecting existing lines on the Jersey side with a new station under West 34th Street.

"We run facilities that rely on automobiles and that is just not a sufficient way to function today," Port Authority Chairman Anthony Coscia told reporters after the vote.

- Matthew Schuerman

The board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved $500 million worth of construction contracts for the Freedom Tower on Thursday afternoon, according to a press release, following up on its agreement to take over the building late last year and Gov. Spitzer's begrudging commitment earlier this week. - Matthew Schuerman

The transfer of the Red Hook piers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to the city is still months away it seems, though the Post and the Sun on Thursday made it seem imminent.

"We anticipate that the final transfer will occur later this year," Port Authority Executive Director Anthony Shorris said in a statement.

Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman likened the agreement that was signed between the two entities to a contract on a house, as opposed to an actual closing.

Still, it does seem like the city has advanced its cause considerably since Mr. Shorris told reporters three weeks ago he was "looking at what should happen."

Democratic lawmakers had been pushing Mr. Shorris to hold off on the transfer since the city would move, or maybe even eliminate, the Red Hook container port in favor of a mixed-use, marine-dependent development.

And what a development that will be. Ever considered how highly hops figure into the Economic Development Corporation's plans for the piers? a A brewery, a beer garden and a beer distributorship are all in the cards. Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, who signed the agreement, did a good job of negotiating. For one, the transfer is off if the city fails to change the zoning on the area to permit these new uses. For another, the city will get the piers for a pretty decent price ($1). If the city is not able to cover the costs of maintaining the piers with lease payments from their users, it will be able to draw down on a fund, set at "up to $75 million," that the Port Authority will put forth.

Why? The memorandum of understanding cites a consultant's study that found that the Port Authority would have to spend $130 million over the next 25 years on maintenance otherwise. - Matthew Schuerman

CLICK TO ENLARGE

It's been a few years.

But on Thursday morning, The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the NY/NJ Port Authority will begin construction work on the Museum and Memorial's footings.

If you happen to have NYPD press credentials, head down at 10:15.  read more »

Click right for a rendering, or below for the full release.