Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:41:29 -0500 (EST)
From: Louis Epstein 
Subject: WTC Rebuilding #534:Can Officials Learn a Lesson?


Sorry it's been so long since the last mailing...
this is the week before Election Day and being a candidate
has been distracting.

A number have things have happened since I last wrote...
among them the death of the sometimes-frustrating architecture
critic Herbert Muschamp.He didn't share our goals but he wasn't
impressed with what the officials produced either.

As far as the Deutsche Bank demolition goes,
it appears work will resumes next month:
http://nypost.com/seven/10122007/news/regionalnews/deutsche_doom_near.htm
That doesn't mean argument over the project has stopped;
dumped subcontractor John Galt Corporation is suing,
and there seems to be an effort to hold Charles Maikish
(who stepped down from the "Construction Command Center"
saying his warnings had been ignored) responsible:
http://nypost.com/seven/10152007/news/regionalnews/the_line_of_fire.htm

Meanwhile,the Penn Station area redevelopment is generating
more news,the relocation of Madison Square Garden is being pushed
but may have too drastic an effect on the old Post Office Building
to maintain its landmark status...of more interest to us is the
proposed new office development...the trendy-planners seem to have
shot down the option of building taller than the Empire State Building
but we should push for it if there are hearings...bolder is better!
Of most relevance is the site's rivalry to the WTC site in the
choice of headquarters for Merrill Lynch...which I noted in #531
(we should be writing letters!!!)

Here are two Crain's articles as forwarded by Joe Wright:

		=========1st==========
Merrill eyeing headquarters options


Theresa Agovino

Published: October 15, 2007 - 1:34 pm

Merrill Lynch, which was a pioneer at the World Financial Center when it
opened more than 20 years ago, is expected to announce the location for
its headquarters in the next few weeks.

Its options are staying put, moving to the yet-to-be-built Tower 3 of the
World Trade Center or helping jump-start the redevelopment of the area
surrounding Penn Station by relocating in the site that is now home to
the Hotel Pennsylvania.

Downtown leaders, led by Lower Manhattan Development Corp. Chairman Avi
Schick have repeatedly said they want Merrill to remain downtown. But Mr.
Schick insisted last week at a Crain's New York Business breakfast forum
that his discussions with Merrill have been restricted to benefits
available to any company, including a sales tax exemption on goods
purchased to build out the space and a temporary rent tax waiver or
reduction.

He specifically rejected the idea that Merrill would qualify for a
package that was on the order of the $650 million Goldman Sachs received
in 2005 for agreeing to build a new headquarters in Battery Park City.

"The Goldman deal took place at an earlier time," Mr. Schick said. "We've
helped Merrill figure out how to use [existing] incentives."

Government incentives are only one part of the equation, however.

The World Financial Center's owner, Brookfield Properties Corp., may have
to be willing to provide the most attractive financial deal for the
securities firm. That's because if Merrill leaves, Brookfield will need
to fill 3 million square feet of space in buildings that will be more
than 25 years old when the investment bank's lease expires in 2013.

Brookfield wouldn't comment on negotiations.

The World Trade Center site may not be the most economical, but it
beckons Merrill with the opportunity to be in a brand-new building that
it can customize to its specifications. That's a very attractive lure,
experts say.

Reaching an agreement to move into the site promises to be a challenge.
The building's owner, Larry Silverstein, has a reputation as a tough and
difficult negotiator. He rebuilt 7 World Trade Center without a major
tenant and resisted enormous political pressure to lower rents until he
got his price.

"If we don't get tenants [before we open], that's OK," says Janno Lieber,
director of World Trade Center Development at Silverstein Properties, who
declined to discuss the negotiations.

The Hotel Pennsylvania site also offers Merrill the ability to build from
scratch and, like the WTC location, presents the opportunity to be part
of a major redevelopment.
		=========End==========

Crain's had an online comment opportunity (probably closed by now)
on the issue of whether Merrill Lynch should receive incentives to stay
downtown.


		=========2nd==========

  Merrill hones in on headquarters decision

    October 25. 2007 9:46AM
By:
    Catherine Tymkiw

The firm, which has been eyeing three options, including a move to
Midtown, reportedly asked for final offers last week.

Merrill Lynch headquarters at the World Financial Center Bloomberg News

Merrill Lynch & Co. is honing in on a final decision about where it plans
to set up shop when its lease at the World Financial Center ends in 2013.

The firm has been eyeing three possible options: remaining at the World
Financial Center, moving to Tower 3 when it's constructed, or building a
three million-square-foot tower at the site of the current Hotel
Pennsylvania on Seventh Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd streets.

The New York Times reported early Thursday that Merrill asked for final
offers from the landlords of all three spaces last week, suggesting a
decision is imminent. Merrill was said to be leaning toward a midtown
move, where it would spend $4 billion on an office tower that would house
9,000 employees. About 2,000 workers would remain at 222 Broadway.

"We're evaluating all of our options and expect to come to a decision
shortly," said Merrill spokeswoman Selena Morris, declining further
comment.

Merrill, which on Wednesday reported its first quarterly loss in six
years amid a massive $8.4 billion write-down, will want the most
economical deal. To construct a new tower in Midtown would cost $400 to
$500 per square foot without factoring in the $150-per-square foot for
the interior, while buildings rising around and in the World Trade Center
command rents of about $70 to $75 per square foot.

According to the Times, citing government officials and real estate
executives briefed on the negotiations, the downtown offers were about $1
billion cheaper than the Midtown option. A source close to the situation
disputed that figure, saying the difference was nominal.

Downtown leaders have been adamant about trying to keep Merrill downtown.
However, there has been no talk about sweetening the incentive pot. Avi
Schick, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., recently told
a Crain's New York Business breakfast forum that his discussions with
Merrill involved only those incentives that are available to any company,
including temporary rent-tax waivers and certain tax exemptions related
to building out the space.
		=========End==========

Roughly concurrent with the latter is a NY Times article that
Peter Walukiewicz mentioned,and Cecil Shepherd sent:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:12:14 -0400
From: Cecil A. Shepherd
Subject: Merrill Lynch Expected to Quit Downtown for Midtown

October 25, 2007

Merrill Lynch Expected to Quit Downtown for Midtown

By CHARLES V. BAGLI


Merrill Lynch & Company, the world's largest brokerage firm, appears ready
to move its longtime headquarters from Lower Manhattan to a new skyscraper
in Midtown, across Seventh Avenue from Pennsylvania Station, according to
government officials and real estate executives.

The move would be a blow to downtown and its supporters in Albany, including
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, and it would hobble efforts to re-establish ground
zero as a financial center. But it would be a major boost to the developer
Steven Roth's ambitions for the Penn Station area.

Both Larry A. Silverstein, the developer at ground zero, and Brookfield
Properties, Merrill's current landlord at the nearby World Financial
Center, submitted sweetened last-minute offers last week that were as much
as $1 billion cheaper than the Midtown option, according to government
officials and real estate executives who have been briefed on the
negotiations.

But the investment bank has "given every indication," those officials and
executives said, that it plans to build a $4 billion, 3 million-square-foot
tower on Seventh Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd Streets, that would be home
for 11,000 employees. The building, at the current site of the Hotel
Pennsylvania, would have significantly more square footage than the
Empire State Building, though it might not be as tall.

Indeed, Merrill is negotiating with the owner of the Midtown development
site, Mr. Roth's Vornado Realty Trust, and interviewing prospective
developers for the project this week, including Tishman Speyer Properties,
Rudin Management and Hines, according to real estate executives.

The potential relocation, which would not occur until 2013, comes as Merrill
reported $7.9 billion in write-downs yesterday, leading to its first
quarterly loss in six years. State officials hold out hope that the
company's difficult financial situation will prompt it to reconsider leaving
Lower Manhattan.

"We understand that Merrill is still reviewing several options and suspect
that they have to take into account a variety of factors, including cost and
execution risk, before determining how to proceed," said Avi Schick,
president of the Empire State Development Corporation, who has been involved
in discussions with Merrill Lynch.

Jason Wright, a Merrill spokesman, said the company was "evaluating all our
options" and expected "to come to a conclusion shortly."

Jones Lang LaSalle, the real-estate firm advising Merrill, did not return
calls requesting comment.A Roth spokesman also declined comment.

Merrill has been negotiating with Vornado over the terms of a billion-dollar
65-year lease that would give the company control of the half-block hotel
site, according to executives who have been briefed on the talks. Those
executives noted that the negotiations could fall apart given the
hard-bargaining nature of the participants and Merrill's financial
situation.

Under the proposed deal, Merrill would demolish the hotel and erect a
building that would include 80,000-square-foot trading floors on the lower
levels. But there are questions about whether the tower can be completed by
2013, when Merrill's lease expires at the World Financial Center. The Hotel
Pennsylvania demolition project requires public approval, which could take a
year, and would entail building over the railroad tracks that run beneath
the hotel and pose engineering and security challenges.

"We have not given up on keeping them downtown," said Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver, whose district includes Lower Manhattan. "There's more
certainty downtown. Uptown, they need all kinds of approvals and zoning."

Penn Station is the latest real estate frontier. Mr. Roth and Vornado, along
with a second developer, the Related Companies, have proposed a $14 billion
overhaul of the dowdy neighborhood. Their plans include the demolition of
Madison Square Garden to make way for a new Pennsylvania Station, the
conversion of the general post office on Eighth Avenue into an adjunct train
station as well as a new Garden, and the development of office towers with a
total of 6.3 million square feet.

A deal with Merrill would provide some financial security for a bid by
Vornado and the Durst Organization for the development rights over the
West Side railyards, three blocks west of the Hotel Pennsylvania. The
Bloomberg administration has vigorously promoted the railyards project.

"We'd like to see Merrill stay in Lower Manhattan - which is clearly a
better value for them and one of the fastest-growing business districts in
the country," said John Gallagher, a spokesman for Deputy Mayor Daniel L.
Doctoroff. "However, it is critical that Merrill stay in New York City."

Merrill has been actively looking at various options for a new headquarters
for more than a year, though it has not discussed leaving the city. It has
wanted the kind of huge trading floors that Goldman Sachs is building in its
new headquarters on West Street, opposite ground zero, and enough space to
bring all its employees under one roof.

Last week, Merrill asked for final offers from three contestants: Mr. Roth
and Vornado; its current landlord, Brookfield Properties; and Mr.
Silverstein, developing three towers at ground zero. With the possibility of
Merrill's departure seeming to grow more real, Governor Spitzer called
Stanley O'Neal, Merrill Lynch's chief executive, to make a personal
appeal.

Brookfield submitted the least expensive plan, to expand the lower floors at
2 World Financial Center to accommodate the trading floors. But it would
have required several years of construction and office relocation.

After months of resisting Merrill's demands, Mr. Silverstein finally
proposed selling a site at ground zero and reconfiguring the existing
design. But it would not have allowed for the extra large trading floors.

Mr. Silverstein had insisted on what Merrill executives considered an
especially high price - until last week, when he cut his price by nearly
$400 million, a particularly large sum that late in the negotiations,
according to three people involved in the talks.

If Merrill Lynch goes to Midtown, it would mark the third major investment
bank after Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Company, that could not
come to terms with Mr. Silverstein.

It was only in June that Governor Spitzer, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and
Mr. Silver were trumpeting a remarkable comeback at the former World Trade
Center site and downtown generally. JPMorgan Chase had just announced that
it would build a $2 billion headquarters near ground zero for its
investment banking business. Both the new PATH station and the Freedom
Tower, the tallest skyscraper at ground zero, were under construction.

Some downtown business executives and state officials are now concerned that
Merrill's departure would undercut the downtown resurgence. The bank would
leave behind 2.5 million square feet of office space at the World Financial
Center around the same time the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
would be trying to fill more expensive space at the 2.6
million-square-foot Freedom Tower and Mr. Silverstein would be
looking for tenants for three other big towers planned for ground zero.

Barry Gosin, vice chairman of Newmark Knight Frank, was cautiously
optimistic, however. He said the loss of a single institution would not
reverse what has happened downtown. "It may slow down the leasing at the
World Trade Center and the World Financial Center," he said. "But all the
things happening downtown will outweigh the impact. There's a critical mass
of firms."

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
---------- End forwarded message ----------

Now...isn't it OBVIOUS that the reason Merrill Lynch is ready to
leave Downtown rather than rent at the WTC is...that the official
plans and the wrong priorities that produced them opposed building
big enough??

It's time to BLAME the official planners for this!
(Merrill passing up one of the Libeskind dwarfs for a
bigger,taller building would also KILL the "nobody would
work in a building that high" argument and any excuse
for using it to guide planning).

Fire off letters raising these issues!
letters@nypost.com
letters@nytimes.com
voicers@edit.nydailynews.com
(the last two demand postal address and phone number to consider
letters for publication,all prefer letters to be short).

Since the above articles,CEO O'Neal has been forced out of the company
over financial reverses...it's not clear how long the headquarters
decision may be postponed.But POUNCE,people...don't just sit there.

Merging Towers 3 and 4 of the Libescheme into something BIGGER
and TALLER than the Fraud'em Tower (killing Libeskind's "rising
arc") should be urged if we can't get the whole foolish scheme
killed.(But we'll get NOTHING done right if we stop complaining).

Meanwhile,venerable NCR (the old National Cash Register company),
headquartered in Dayton,Ohio since it was founded in 1884,though
it was briefly owned by AT&T,is moving to 7 WTC...a building that
is properly TALLER than its predecessor (although it has smaller
floors because of the unreasonable demand to slam Greenwich Street
through the block).

In other controversial real estate deals,Tal Barzilai notes
atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com (a blog about Atlantic Yards)
has contrasted that project with the WTC plans.

Anyway...I'm not losing interest and I hope none of you are.

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.