Brian Palmer: WTC site must produce revenue

CNN's Brian Palmer in New York

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Thousands of New Yorkers got a chance Saturday to consider six proposals for redeveloping the World Trade Center site, all of which mix commercial and green space and set aside room for a September 11 memorial.

After a public comment period, the Trade Center options will be narrowed to three by September, with a final decision expected by year's end.

CNN Correspondent Brian Palmer, who is covering the Listening to the City forum at the Jacob Javits Center, spoke Saturday to CNN's Miles O'Brien.

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PALMER: About 5,000 people from various backgrounds are going to be coming in to weigh in on six different World Trade Center proposals. ... This is going to be an electronic town hall meeting. They're going to be able to talk about these proposals. And that really is the center of this day. The day starts at 9 and it ends at 4.

There was a mixed reaction to these six different design proposals that were presented earlier in the week. ... I think there may have been some misunderstanding or lack of understanding in the public. The design firms that created these proposals were charged with coming up with designs, structures, that incorporated 11 million square feet of office space and about 600 square feet of retail space.

The World Trade Center site was a revenue-generating site when it was built, and the lease holders and the city and the state expect it to generate revenue when it's rebuilt. I think some victims of September 11, some of the family members, were thinking that a memorial should play a larger part. That will also be on the agenda today. People will be discussing the general concept of World Trade Center redevelopment.

But again, at the core of this day will be those six sites.

The first Listening to the City event was held about six months after the World Trade Center attack. There were about 600 participants in that event ... people who were actually at Ground Zero but also just people who are citizens of New York, concerned citizens.

Their priorities were integrating a memorial into the downtown area, but also creating a transportation hub in the downtown area. That issue wasn't really addressed in these six design proposals that were presented earlier in the week. That may also come up today.

O'BRIEN: Brian, just a quick question on process and ownership. First of all, is the entire site owned by the Port Authority?

PALMER: The entire site is indeed owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The lease holders are Larry Silverstein and a company called Westfield Associates. They deal with the retail space, and Silverstein has the commercial space.

O'BRIEN: Well, just hypothetically, could the lease holder do pretty much what he wanted on that site? Or because the Port Authority's involved, they have a lot of say-so and thus the constituents of the Port Authority, thus the people of New York would have a lot of say-so?

PALMER: Well, Miles, the issue, I think, boils down to money. The site has to generate money. There is a lease, and Silverstein and Westfield still have to pay the city every month. Insurance is covering that at this point. But the site has to generate revenue.

So yes, this is a democratic event and people will get to weigh in, but fundamentally, the decisions will be made by the city, the state, (and) presumably the lease holders will have a very important say in that.