Governor Paterson today announced an audit of the schedules and budgets at the World Trade Center site, with his new Port Authority director Chris Ward due to report back by the end of June.

The review, announced two hours after the Port Authority acknowledged it is facing a two-month delay on the site for Tower 2, is already underway at the bi-state agency, as the Paterson administration seems eager to shed any blame for the unrealistic timetables set in the Pataki era.

From a letter from Mr. Paterson to Mr. Ward:

The rebuilding of the World Trade Center site must encompass clear and achievable timelines and budget goals that must be met at every step of the way. Furthermore, the stakeholders and the public must be kept up to date on progress in meeting the timetables and budgets as we move forward.

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The Port Authority has reached an agreement with the Chinese real estate firm Vantone to lease space in the Freedom Tower, a deal that, if completed, will mark the first major private sector lease for the tower.

Vantone agreed to take 190,000 square feet for a 22-year lease to make a “China Center,” starting at $80 a square foot.

However, there’s reason to keep the champagne corked for now. Developer Larry Silverstein broke off a lease deal in 7 World Trade Center with Vantone in 2006 when the firm failed to produce a letter of credit in a timely fashion. The firm then backed out of a lease deal at 195 Broadway.  read more »

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.

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 »

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 »

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 »

Cushman & Wakefield won what once would have been a dubious honor but now sounds not so bad: the contract to broker the Freedom Tower--or rather, "1 World Trade Center, the Freedom Tower." The Port Authority chose the firm over competitors Colliers ABR, GMAC, Jones Lang LaSalle and Newmark Knight Frank.

Press release after jump.  read more »

• Jay McInerney's long-going goodbye to the Upper East Side continues with his final trips to Elio's ("Who dares to serve lasagna in this neighborhood? Gottta love it"), Bar and Books (for "uptown swells"), and Pinkberry ("a great place to watch girls.") [House & Garden]
• Despite community efforts (which have included the old handcuffed-to-tree trick), the 19-year-old Nueva Esperanza (New Hope) Garden will be turned into an $80 million luxury condominium, plus the Museum for African Art. Scarily, of the city's 40 to 50 gardens "in danger of being developed," half are in East Harlem. [City Limits]
• The Freedom Tower's costs rise, and the grumbles grow louder. But what do a few extra billion dollars here or there matter? [Architectural Record News]
• For a family-centric ad, Corcoran fills the Guccione mansion with more babes [above] than it ever had in its Penthouse magazine days. [Curbed] - Max Abelson]]> http://www.observer.com/node/35990#comments Real Estate Freedom Tower New Hope Corporation Ltd. Nueva Esperanza Tue, 10 Apr 2007 14:00:00 -0400 Observer Staff 35990 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/node/35961 The Real Estate was wrong about one thing: predicting that Mike Petralia, the president of the Convention Center Development Corporation would be leaving at the end of March. It turns out, he will stay through June--but in an undefined capacity. Starting April 16, Barbara Lampen, assistant director of the Freedom Tower project at the Port Authority, will take over his job.

  Is that a sign of the caliber of mess that the convention center expansion is becoming?

  The announcement was made last Thursday by the state economic development agency.

  Full statement after jump.  read more »

  - Matthew Schuerman Correction: An earlier post mischaracterized the way in which the announcement was distributed. ]]> http://www.observer.com/node/35961#comments Real Estate Barbara Lampen Convention Center Development Corporation Freedom Tower Javits Center Wed, 04 Apr 2007 06:30:00 -0400 Observer Staff 35961 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/node/35862 The Empire State Development Corporation flipped one of the seven floors of the office condo it bought at 125 Maiden Lane for an 8 percent profit in four months, co-chairman Pat Foye said on Thursday. Under the Pataki administration, the ESDC sold its office condo at 633 Third Avenue in midtown in November and purchased the lower Manhattan one, saying that would be cheaper.

  The new buyer, the Guttmacher Institute, paid $10.2 million.

  Mr. Foye said after the agency's monthly meeting that he had not decided whether or not ESDC would move into the remaining six floors at 125 Maiden or try to buy back its current location from its new owner. He also said the 8 percent profit did not take into account the expense of renting its current location. (The ESDC had been subletting at 633 Third, and had not yet moved into 125 Maiden.)

  He did say, however, "We don't want to move twice, once to Maiden Lane and then again to the Freedom Tower. And I think there is something to be said about being in proximity to our colleagues in state government" that are staying on in 633 Third.

  - Matthew Schuerman Correction: An earlier post gave an incorrect sales price that Guttmacher paid.]]> http://www.observer.com/node/35862#comments Real Estate Empire State Development Corporation Freedom Tower Manhattan Pat Foye Thu, 15 Mar 2007 07:51:25 -0400 Observer Staff 35862 at http://www.observer.com