673 police to man WTC
Nearly 700 officers will be assigned to patrol the World Trade Center once it is fully redeveloped, according an Associated Press report published by The Washington Post.
New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly discussed the need for comprehensive security at the site at an event held on Tuesday for the Police Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy policing group.
The W.T.C. site requires special monitoring, since it is still a terrorist target, Kelly said at the event.
Also, according to the Associated Press, Kelly has chosen a deputy commissioner for the World Trade Center command who is crafting a security plan for the memorial service scheduled for next September in observance of the 10-year anniversary of 9/11.
Hive at 55 Turns One
Lower Manhattan’s Business Improvement District, Downtown Alliance, celebrated the one-year anniversary of The Hive at 55, a Downtown co-working facility located at 55 Broad Street.
In its first year, the Hive has been used more than 5,000 times, with upwards of 100 regular members, according to the Downtown Alliance. It has grown an average of 22 percent per month, and more than 80 percent of its desks are assigned monthly.
Downtown Alliance collaborated with Pace University, Girls in Tech, GuruLoft and other tech and social media groups to host more than 100 events there thus far.
Speakers at Tuesday’s event included Downtown Alliance President Elizabeth Berger and Rudin Management Chairman William Rudin. President Seth Pinsky of the NYC Economic Development Corporation, the company that provided a $100,000 grant to the Downtown Alliance, also said a few words.
Affordable housing guide
Community Board 1’s Affordable Housing Task Force has discovered close to 1,000 affordable housing units in the C.B. 1 area, according to task force chairman Tom Goodkind.
The task force is planning to create a guide “for those who want to live here and think they can’t afford it – pushing for a more diverse community, and protecting our current tenancy,” said Goodkind.
The group, led by Tribeca-based film producer Amy Sewell, is also coming up with a dollar figure of the amount of affordable housing the city has subsidized.
The task force also hopes to form Manhattan Seniors, a nonprofit that would be responsible for supervising affordable services for seniors who wish to age-in-place in the neighborhood.
The 14-member task force will convene for its January monthly meeting next Monday evening at the C.B. 1 offices on Chambers Street.
Silverstein tables bond sale
Silverstein Properties, the lead developer of the World Trade Center, has postponed the sale of $1.3 billion in tax-exempt liberty bonds to pay for 4 W.T.C., one of the three W.T.C. towers that need financing from the bonds, according to a report published by the Wall Street Journal. Borrowers have hurried to capitalize on the Build America bonds, a federal subsidies program, causing volatility in the municipal bond market in recent weeks, according to the report.
Though Silverstein’s bonds don’t fall within the government program, the developer wants to hold off on selling the bonds. “Like many other issuers of tax-exempt debt around the country, Silverstein Properties and the Port Authority have elected to wait until the municipal bond market stabilizes before issuing bonds that will support the ongoing development of 4 W.T.C.,” said Bud Perrone, a spokesperson for Silverstein Properties.
Perrone added that Silverstein would be prepared to “act as soon as market conditions improve,” which the developer anticipates to happen “in the coming weeks or months.”
He noted that the delay of the sale would not imminently affect the construction schedule.
