One World Trade Center Cost Keeps Rising As Design Flaw Uncovered
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork / AP) - The cost of One World Trade Center is rising sharply everyday. Now, the Port Authority has discovered that the loading docks under the building won't be ready in time for its tenants.
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The problem is due to a temporary station that was built for the Port Authority Trans Hudson (PATH) subway. That station can't be dismantled to make way for underground freight areas until crews finish the permanent station.
"Several years there was a design miss,'' said Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority, "Should it have been caught? The answer is, probably.''
Millions more will have to be spent on a temporary loading docks.
However, Greg David, contributor to Crain's New York Business, says it's not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things.
"It may sound like a lot, but it's really not. The cost of One World Trade Center, the Wall Street Journal reported this week, is going to rise by $700 million," he told WCBS 880 reporter Monica Miller. That's up to a total of $3.8 billion, a number that Foye would not confirm. "This has been the story of the World Trade Center from the very beginning. The costs were underestimated. They continue to be underestimated."
So, why does the cost keep rising and rising?
"Because it's much more expensive to lease the space than they had assumed because we're giving companies such breaks to move in there and because construction costs are rising," said David.
Foye says the Port Authority still expects One World Trade Center to be completed by the end of 2013.
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