http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...FREE/302149974
Ground Zero Arts Center gets go ahead
City says WTC site a go; project's long term viability doubted
By Miriam Kreinin Souccar
After endless debate over the final location for a performing arts center to be built at Ground Zero, city officials told Crain's last week that the Frank Gehry-designed theater will be constructed on the originally planned site, and that below-ground construction work on the foundation will start next quarter.
The 1,000-seat theater and rehearsal facility, to be run by the Joyce Theater, a dance presenter, was originally scheduled to open this fall. But disagreements between city and state officials, and the complexity of building at Ground Zero, have kept the project on the back burner.
Now, after much wrangling, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. has released the $50 million needed to construct the subterranean support structure for the center, which will be built in the area bounded by Fulton, Greenwich, Vesey and Washington streets near the 1,776-foot-high 1 World Trade Center.
“We are more optimistic about the performing arts center now than ever,” says Linda Shelton, executive director of the Joyce, the only group left of the four cultural organizations originally chosen by the city to inhabit the Ground Zero site.
But even if the foundation work moves ahead as planned, the project faces numerous challenges, leaving skeptics questioning whether it will ever be built.
For starters, once the underground work is finished, the city will have to wait at least four years to begin construction on the actual building, because the temporary PATH station that is on the site can't be removed until the permanent transportation hub is finished. Estimates call for the Santiago Calatrava-designed station to be finished in 2014, but as is often the case with construction, there could be delays.
By then, building costs will likely be higher, and it is difficult to gauge what the fundraising environment will be like.
A tough nut to crack
Ms. Shelton says that final estimates for the cost of the project are still being worked out, though sources close to the Port Authority say they expect that the “arts community” will need to raise around $500 million for the center.
“The city is not giving up, and the Joyce is not giving up, but the delays have now put us in an economic climate that will have a long-term systemic impact on funding,” says Norma Munn, chairperson of the New York City Arts Coalition. “There's a general, overriding sense that the project seems to be increasingly unlikely.”
Recognizing those challenges, some officials at the LMDC are fighting a rearguard action to shift the center to the Deutsche Bank site at 130 Liberty St. Work there could begin at the end of the year—far sooner than at Ground Zero. And the estimated cost of around $300 million would be much lower, say advocates of the Deutsche Bank site.
Not giving up the fight
In fact, the LMDC is still conducting a study of the two areas. Advocates of the Deutsche Bank site, such as LMDC board member John Zuccotti, don't seem to believe the site decision is final, or will be even after the underground work is completed.
“I am hopeful and optimistic that after a timely and responsible evaluation of the possible sites, the remaining issues will be resolved quickly and the center developed expeditiously,” says Mr. Zuccotti, who is also U.S. Chairman of Brookfield Properties, which owns the World Financial Center.
Nevertheless, city officials continue to assert that the location is a done deal and that the performing arts center will serve as an anchor to the entire Trade Center complex.
“Our goal is to realize the original master plan, which locates the cultural center at the heart of the site,” says Kate Levin, the city's cultural affairs commissioner. “The performing arts center is key to the area's revitalization.”
And city officials seem undaunted by the project's challenges.
“It's not a big secret that the World Trade Center site is one of the most complex real estate development projects under way anywhere, with more than its fair share of starts and stops,” a spokesman for the mayor's office says. “But the performing arts center is an important component of the plan, we're committed to making it happen, and we wouldn't be starting construction on its foundation in the coming months if the project was in doubt.”
Prev
Linear Mode
