Future of The 130 Liberty Street Site
Negotiations over the World Trade Center site concluded in April 2006 with private developer Larry Silverstein yielding his right to develop on the site designated for Tower Five to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in exchange for assistance in financing Towers Two, Three, and Four. Mayor Michael Bloomberg later claimed there wasn't enough demand for office space to fill the five towers included in the World Trade Center's master plan and called for a major revision of the plan to include housing and hotels. But the demand for Manhattan office space, including downtown, has boomed since 2006, and January 16, 2007, financial giant JPMorgan Chase was in talks with the Port Authority about developing the new 5 World Trade Center skyscraper into a corporate tower, which would prevent Mayor Bloomberg's push to use the site for housing.
Several sources familiar with JPMorgan Chase's talks with state and Port Authority officials said the firm's bid to develop the proposed 57-story tower for major corporate tenants is being taken seriously by the bistate agency. In fact, sources said, JPMorgan Chase is not the only corporate bidder for the site.
To make the commercial deal work, the Port Authority would have to agree to expand the size of Tower 5's base in order to accommodate the large, lower-level floors needed for trading rooms, a requirement for most large financial-services firms.
On June 14, 2007, Bloomberg and then-Governor Eliot Spitzer announced that JPMorgan Chase had won the bid to buy and build the new tower at 130 Liberty Street to replace the Deutsche Bank Building.
However, after the acquisition of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase in March 2008, the future of 130 Liberty Street has been put into question as JPMorgan Chase has announced that it intends to move into Bear Stearns' old headquarters at 383 Madison Avenue. If JPMorgan Chase does not renew their bid, the site would likely be used for a residential tower, as per Bloomberg's plan prior to JPMorgan Chase's bid. Recently community and civic leaders met to discuss the site's future with community leaders favoring a hotel or residential development and outgoing deputy mayor Robert Lieber favoring an office tower.
Read more about this topic: Deutsche Bank Building
Famous quotes containing the words future, liberty, street and/or site:
“The future is built on brains, not prom court, as most people can tell you after attending their high school reunion. But you’d never know it by talking to kids or listening to the messages they get from the culture and even from their schools.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1953)
“The English, besides being “good haters,” are dogged and downright, and have no salvos for their self-love. Their vanity does not heal the wounds made in their pride. The French, on the contrary, are soon reconciled to fate, and so enamoured of their own idea, that nothing can put them out of conceit with it. Whatever their attachment to their country, to liberty or glory, they are not so affected by the loss of these as to make any desperate effort or sacrifice to recover them.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)
“If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don’t be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning “Good morning” at total strangers.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“The site of the true bottomless financial pit is the toy store. It’s amazing how much a few pieces of plastic and paper will sell for if the purchasers are parents or grandparent, especially when the manufacturers claim their product improves a child’s intellectual or physical development.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)