By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — The World Trade Center site could get a boost from President Barack Obama’s stimulus package — funds that otherwise might go to waste, according to a state agency.
World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein is seeking $200 million in stimulus bonds to help build Tower 3, a 71-story skyscraper that is scheduled to open in 2015, the Empire State Development Corporation said.
The $25 billion federal Recovery Zone Bonds program expires at the end of this year, so the bonds must be issued before then or they won't be able to be used at all, said Jonathan Beyer, senior counsel at the ESDC.
The bond program is part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and was launched last year to support capital projects in areas struggling with job loss.
The federal government divided the available bonds among hundreds of regions across all 50 states, but some of the regions may not have spent their allocations, ESDC said. Rather than let up to $555 million in "recovery zone facility bonds" allocated for New York go to waste when the end-of-year deadline passes, Silverstein hopes to use the financing at the World Trade Center site.
It is unclear how much of the bond money remains, and the ESDC is contacting the state's cities to find out whether they've used their share.
"We are in the process of trying to determine if there will be any excess capacity," said Frances Walton, chief financial and administrative officer at ESDC.
The ESDC, the state agency that would issue the bonds, held a brief public hearing on Silverstein's proposal Monday morning and is scheduled to vote on it Monday afternoon.
In addition to the stimulus bonds, Silverstein plans to finance the 2.1 million-square-foot tower with federal post-9/11 Liberty Bonds, insurance proceeds, private investment and other public money.
