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Silverstein agrees to conditional rebuild plan

(AP) — World Trade Center site developer Larry Silverstein said Tuesday he would agree, with conditions, to the government's offer to take over building the Freedom Tower and a second skyscraper in the messy rebuilding negotiations at Ground Zero.

In a letter to the site's owner, Mr. Silverstein -- who holds the lease to millions of square feet of destroyed office space -- said he would accept economic terms of the government's latest offer, which would have him build three towers on the site by 2011.

"This is not about profits," Mr. Silverstein wrote top executives at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. "This is about moving the rebuilding forward as quickly as possible in order to revitalize the city's historic downtown."

Officials have continued to say that construction of would begin on the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower by the end of the week.

Janno Lieber, a Silverstein vice president, said Tuesday that work can begin "immediately" if an agreement is reached.

Port Authority officials weren’t available for immediate comment Tuesday.

Mr. Silverstein, who signed a 99-year lease for the Twin Towers six weeks before they collapsed in 2001, said he would agree to pay an additional $1.75 billion in rent in exchange for promises to fill more than 1 million square feet of office space at ground zero with federal, state and city leases.

But he also asked for several conditions, including that the Port Authority immediately approve the deal. The agency, which has a board meeting on Wednesday, had proposed waiting until September for final approval.

Mr. Silverstein also sought guarantees that he wouldn't lose development rights if the agency couldn't get the government leases or prepare land for him to build in time.

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