Larry Silverstein

Larry Silverstein

Larry A. Silverstein (born May 30, 1931) is an American businessman, and real estate investor and developer in New York City.

Silverstein was born in Brooklyn, and became involved in real estate, together with his father, establishing Silverstein Properties. Silverstein separated from his business partner, Bernard Mendik, in 1977, and bought a number of large office buildings in Midtown and Lower Manhattan in the late 1970s. In 1980, Silverstein won a bid from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to construct 7 World Trade Center, to the north of the World Trade Center site. Silverstein was interested in acquiring the entire World Trade Center complex, and put in a bid when the Port Authority put it up for lease in 2000. Silverstein won the bid when a deal between the initial winner and the Port Authority fell through, and he signed the lease on July 24, 2001.

Soon after the September 11 attacks, Silverstein declared his intent to rebuild, though ran into multi-year disputes with his insurers over whether the attacks constituted one or two occurrences. A settlement was reached in 2007, with insurers agreeing to pay out $4.55 billion,which was not as much as Silverstein sought but was still $1.3 billion more than the original $3.2 billion 99-year lease .The insurance for WTC complex was only 7 weeks before the towers came down because of 9/11. Silverstein also ran into multiple disputes with other parties in the rebuilding effort, including with the Port Authority. In an agreement reached in April 2006, Silverstein retained rights to build three office towers (150 Greenwich Street, 175 Greenwich Street, and 200 Greenwich Street), while One World Trade Center (previously referred to as the "Freedom Tower") will be owned by the Port Authority, as well as Tower Five, which may be leased out to another private developer and redesigned as a residential building.