Developer Larry Silverstein, Gov. Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg celebrated the raising of the last steel beam at 7 World Trade Center Thursday while the Port Authority’s board of directors were meeting further Uptown to name the next person to oversee ownership of the W.T.C. site across the street.
Silverstein said it won’t take too long to find commercial tenants for the 52-story building which will be completed next year. “Sooner or later every building gets filled in New York,” Silverstein said, according to the Associated Press. “It’s an amazing thing, there are no vacant buildings around.”
The building collapsed the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001 as a result of the attack on the Twin Towers. Investigators believe the attack caused a fire which spread rapidly because of the large quantity of diesel fuel that was stored in former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s Office of Emergency Management center at 7 W.T.C.
Silverstein owns 7 W.T.C. as well as the long term leasing rights to the World Trade Center complex. Once he fills 7 W.T.C., he will have to find tenants for the Freedom Tower being built at the W.T.C. site. Architect David Childs is the lead designer of both buildings.
Silverstein’s new Freedom Tower landlord is now Kenneth J. Ringler, Jr., who was approved Thursday as executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, owners of the W.TC. site. Gov. Pataki announced several weeks ago that Ringler would be replacing Joseph Seymour, who is retiring.
Architect David Childs in front of the building he designed, 7 W.T.C.
WWW Downtown Express
