Ground Zero Construction

The financially illiterate Truthers keep on making this bizarre argument that Larry Silverstein was involved in blowing up his own building and made off with a fortune in insurance payments, missing the fact that those insurance payments are compensating him for the fact that he is paying rent on buildings which don't exist anymore.

Unfortunately trying to get the World Trade Center complex rebuilt is continuing to be a nightmare, but that won't stop the idiotic conspiracy theories.

For years, rebuilding of the World Trade Center site was held up by construction delays and fights between government agencies, insurers and a developer.

Now the problem is a lack of tenants. While two office buildings are well underway at Ground Zero, construction of a third tower, 3 World Trade Center, is stalled at eight stories, well shy of the 80 floors planned. The reason: its developer, Silverstein Properties Inc, the company run by Larry Silverstein, hasn't been able to find a tenant, and he can't build any higher without one, based on a two-year-old deal with government agencies.

When Mr. Silverstein started construction in mid-2010 on the building, then-expected to have 2.5 million square feet of space, he had hoped he would be able to find a tenant by now and keep building to the tower's top. But cement stopped pouring at the 8th floor in the past few weeks.

The stunted growth of 3 World Trade Center reflects the stagnation that has taken hold in the nation's largest office market and the struggles Lower Manhattan faces in rebuilding the more than 11 million square feet of space lost in the 2001 terrorist attacks.