Bring it on, lads!!!
New World Trade Center Tower Could Get a Lift
Port Authority considers offering concessions toward construction of 2 World Trade Center
By ANDREW TANGEL
Dec. 7, 2015 8:27 p.m. ET
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is considering offering financial concessions toward construction of another office tower at the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan.
The proposed concessions are intended to make way for construction of the building known as 2 World Trade Center, half of which would be occupied by 21st Century Fox Inc. and News Corp , according to a summary released by the authority on Monday.
News Corp is the parent company of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal. News Corp and Fox were part of the same company until 2013. The companies’ current lease in Midtown Manhattan isn’t expected to expire until 2020.
Spokesmen for News Corp and 21st Century Fox declined to comment. The companies entered into a nonbinding letter of intent with the developer Larry Silverstein earlier this year to occupy approximately 1.5 million square feet space in the new tower.
Commissioners who oversee the Port Authority, which owns the World Trade Center site, are set to consider the measure on Thursday. In a statement, the agency said the project’s success “is contingent on some public sector support.”
The tower is expected to generate at least $500 million in additional capital-spending capacity for the agency’s projects.
According to a summary included with the authority’s meeting agenda, a proposed reduction in rental payments would be valued at $43 million.
The effective cost of those concessions to the Port Authority would be $18 million after factoring in expected New York state tax credits. Mr. Silverstein’s company would make a $9 million payment to the Port Authority, reducing the cost to $9 million, according to the agency.
A spokesman for Mr. Silverstein declined to comment.
If the Port Authority approves concessions for 2 World Trade Center, it would mark a shift from the agency’s earlier plan for the site.
The earlier plan included a provision calling for “no public sector support” for the tower on top of earlier subsidies afforded to the site.
Concessions for the site’s redevelopment have been the subject of heated discussions at the authority.
In early 2014, the Port Authority was considering a $1.2 billion financing package for Mr. Silverstein’s 3 World Trade Center. But officials scrapped the proposal after objections by some on the Port Authority’s board. That tower went ahead without the revised subsidy plan.
—Eliot Brown contributed to this article.
Write to Andrew Tangel at Andrew.Tangel@wsj.com
