World Trade Center - June 2001
- $200 million needed in renovations and improvements / removal and replacement of building materials declared to be health hazards
- Known as an "Asbestos Bombshell" with advanced galvanic corrosion
- Port Authority tried several times to obtain permits to demolish the buildings for liability reasons
- Projected cost to disassemble the towers:
$15 Billion - Subsidized from birth by the NY Port Authority, by 2001 the WTC complex had sixty percent tenancy and considered to be a giant bomb as far as investments go
Silverstein Properties - July 2001
- Purchases a 99 year lease for the WTC complex for $125 Million (first time in 31 years the
WTC changed owners and went private) - Immediately insures complex for $3.5 Billion with full coverage against "Terrorist Attacks"
- WTC 7 is also included in the insurance policy (he already leased WTC 7 for 15 years)
- Immediately fires complex security and hires Marvin Bush's (president's brother) company Securacom (now Stratasec). Securacom also provided security for Dulles International Airport and United Airlines
- Lewis M Eisenburg gave Larry Silverstein the 99 year contract DESPITE they were the lowest bidders (the high bidder mysteriously pulled out at the last minute)
6 Weeks Later - September 11th
- Larry had breakfast every morning at 8:30am at the Windows on the World restaurant on top of the North Tower. The morning of the 11th he complains to his wife about his "skin" and decides to skip his routine breakfast and goes to the doctor
- Larry's daughter Lisa who was VP of Silverstein Properties attended meetings with tenants every morning on the 88th floor of the North Tower, the usually punctual Lisa was running late on the morning of the 11th
- Roger Silverstein, Larry's son, was also running late on the morning of the 11th. The VP was held up in traffic
- Silverstein Properties cancelled meetings for the morning of the 11th the night before fortunately saving the lives of executives and publicist Rubenstein
Aftermath - September 11th
- Larry immediately filed two insurance claims for the maximum amount of the policy, based on the two, in Silverstein's view, separate attacks. Larry wants $7 billion dollars for his loss
- Larry gets his initial deposit of $125 Million back
- Larry gets $861 Million for WTC 7 (initial investment of $386 Million)
- Larry gets $4.55 Billion for the Twin Towers
- Larry sues the airlines and security firms for $12.8 Billion in 2008
- Silverstein is again suing the airlines whose planes flew into the towers for an extra $3.5 Billion in 2013 (outcome pending)
World Trade Center 7
- "We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it. And they made that decision to pull and then we watched the building collapse." - Larry
- Dr. Shyam Sunder, of the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST),
"There was no firefighting in WTC 7." - James Glanz in the New York Times on November 29, 2001 says about WTC 7:
"By 11:30 a.m., the fire commander in charge of that area, Assistant Chief Frank Fellini, ordered firefighters away" - The FEMA report on the collapses, from May, 2002, also says about the WTC 7 col-lapse: "no manual firefighting operations were taken by FDNY."
- Silverstein claims he spoke with the NYC
"fire department commander" on 9/11, which was Chief Daniel Nigro. However, Daniel Nigro has confirmed that he did not speak to Silverstein on 9/11 - Between 12:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. September 11, 2001: World Trade Center
Leaseholder Larry Silverstein is heard discussing the controlled demolition of WTC 7 during a telephone conversation. As reported by Jeffrey Scott Shapiro
