Two Manhattan megaprojects still delayed

From the NY Observer:

For the second time in three months, and the fourth time in a year and a half, the anticipated contract for the Related Companies to develop the 26-acre West Side rail yards has been delayed. Related and the M.T.A., which owns the rail yards near the Javits Center and initially granted Related the development rights in May 2008, have agreed to extend by one month a March 31 deadline for signing the contract to develop the site. An M.T.A. spokesman confirmed the extension.

Multiple people familiar with the discussions said that the process of readying the legal documents has dragged on, taking longer than expected.

From the NY Times:

The news on Thursday that the Port Authority and the developer Larry A. Silverstein had ceased hostilities and come to a tentative agreement at ground zero was greeted with a great deal of fanfare. But judging from a blistering note the next morning from the Port Authority’s vice chairman, the next 120 days are going to be anything but peaceful.

The vice chairman, Henry R. Silverman, said in an e-mail message that the final deal allowing Mr. Silverstein to build two skyscrapers at ground zero with up to $1.6 billion in public subsidies cannot leave the developer flush with cash and the authority at financial risk.

“The notion that a private developer and/or his investors profit while the public sector is at risk for billions of dollars is unacceptable,” he wrote to the authority’s executive director, Christopher O. Ward, and eight fellow commissioners.

Only 17 hours earlier, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Gov. David A. Paterson and various labor leaders lauded the announcement that the two sides would spend the next three months putting their rough outline of a deal into formal documents.

But clearly the commissioners are worried. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is already building 1 World Trade Center, a $3 billion tower at the northwest corner of the site, which also needs tenants, as well as a $3.2 billion transit center and the national memorial.