WTC rebuild faces decades of delays

The rebuilding of New York's World Trade Centre site may take up to three decades to complete because the demand for office space has shrunk with Wall Street's falling fortunes

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The Freedon Towers will be completed on time

The rebuilding of New York's World Trade Centre site may take up to three decades to complete because the demand for office space has shrunk with Wall Street's falling fortunes.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, owner of the 16-acre site in Lower Manhattan, yesterday said it was taking a cautious approach after a study showed that it could take until 2037 to lease all the planned office towers.

The Port Authority wants to avoid building speculative office towers before the market revives, its executive director, Christopher Ward, said."It would be in a way foolish for us to extend too far into that market," Ward said.

He pledged, however, that the authority's own projects -- the memorial to the nearly 3,000 people who died in the September 11, 2001, attacks, a transit hub, and the One World Trade Centre skyscraper originally known as the Freedom Tower -- will be completed on time.

The Port Authority commissioned a study of the site's prospects after private developer Larry Silverstein, who is building three office towers there, asked the agency to guarantee some of his bank loans; the Port Authority would own the buildings if Silverstein could not repay the loans

The rebuilding has already been delayed by several years due to court fights over the insurance money owed Silverstein and clashes over designs and security.