Missing Man
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
When representatives of New York City, the state, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation meet tonight to pick a designer for the World Trade Center site downtown, the person who deserves the biggest voice in the matter won’t be there. That’s real estate executive Larry Silverstein. Mr. Silverstein, who owns a 99-year lease on the Trade Center office space and has been keeping current on his rent, is being treated as an afterthought by the government officials who are building castles in the air with the help of some of the world’s most prominent architects. Mr. Silverstein’s participation has the potential to inject a much-needed dose of market-oriented reality into the planning for downtown. The more he’s involved and the sooner, the better.
