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WTC developer Larry Silverstein looks ahead
Ten years ago, even while fires were still burning in the pit that was Ground Zero, real estate developer Larry Silverstein, then 70, stood up publicly and called for rebuilding.
Silverstein's forward-looking view stemmed from his misfortune of having signed a 99-year lease on the Twin Towers in June 2001, just weeks before their collapse.
"In the event of any damage to the buildings, it was my obligation to repair the damage, or replace whatever is necessary and to do it as quickly as possible, like kind, like quality. Silverstein told CBS News in a recent interview. "The buildings came down. It was my obligation to put them back."
Silverstein's outlook was at odds with many relatives of Sept. 11 attack victims and then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who argued the entire 16 acre site should become a memorial.
To preserve his rights to rebuild, Silverstein continued to pay rent to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the transportation agency that built the World Trade Center in the early 1970s and managed it, until turning it over to Silverstein Properties.
After Sept. 11, 2001, Silverstein continued paying rent without interruption of $120 million a year, or $10 million a month (over $300,000 a day).
Silverstein staked his claim - that all ten million square feet of commercial office space ought to be rebuilt -- before the clean-up was complete, because of an exodus.
"It dawned upon me very, very swiftly that we couldn't let this go, we couldn't let this sit fallow, because there were families leaving Lower Manhattan by the thousands. They couldn't get out of here fast enough," Silverstein said. "Commercial firms were leaving. We had to reverse this, and the only way to reverse it was to rebuild."
Beyond the fear factor of anyone ever occupying hypothetical new skyscrapers at the World Trade Center, financing was a stumbling block. Silverstein relied on his insurance policies, some of which weren't even signed, to raise the funds. Silverstein sued his insurers, claiming that the two plane crashes on two buildings were separate catastrophic incidents.
"Instead of $6 billion, we came out with $4.5 billion," he says.
Silverstein had enough funding to rebuild Seven World Trade Center, a 47-story building right across the street of the trade center site that he had developed in the 1980s. No one had died when WTC 7 was the last building to collapse on Sept. 11, so Silverstein planned a 52-story replacement on the same spot. It was completed in 2006.
"People told us, 'Hey you'll never succeed, you'll never lease it, no one is going to want the space, you'll never rent it, don't build it," Silverstein said. "But I didn't listen to them, and I went ahead and built this building, and the net result is we leased it, and we financed it for 40 years, and it's an eminently successful building."
The actual 16 acres of the trade center site were another story. Rebuilding officials led by former New York Governor George Pataki in 2003 chose a master plan by architect Daniel Libeskind, which featured a large space for the memorial and a signature tower rising a symbolic 1,776 feet, which Pataki dubbed the Freedom Tower.
Silverstein didn't care for Libeskind's tower, so he brought in his architect, David Childs, who had designed the successful new Seven World Trade Center, to redo it. Between a contentious design process and the NYPD insisting on further security tweaks, the rebuilding process stalled. Silverstein's financial position slipped to where he had to relinquish control of the signature tower, to the Port Authority, which redubbed it One World Trade Center.
"I think the tower is beautifully designed," Silverstein said. "I think it will distinguish the New York Skyline all over again."
Silverstein Properties is now concentrating on three new buildings on the site currently called towers 2, 3, and 4 World Trade Center. The steel frame of Building 4 has already reached 50 stories on its way to 72, and the others, if they can secure anchor tenants, are planned to be even taller.
"The important thing today, instead of looking back, we're looking forward, because of what's happening, and what's happening here is very positive," Silverstein said.
Silverstein believes the amenities of the World Trade Center site, featuring iconic buildings and a transit hub connecting more than a dozen subway lines and trains from New Jersey will be appealing.
"When you've got mass transit, which is what business looks for. You've got first class space, which is what business looks for. You've got a first class neighborhood, which is what business looks for. You've got an unbeatable combination," Silverstein said.
"On my 84th or 85th birthday, in 2015, 2016, when I think this is really going to be done, I hope people look at what we've accomplished here and agree that we did a superb job."
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