The molasses-like saga of the General Services Administration’s move to the World Trade Center took another perplexing turn yesterday.
A Florida lawmaker denied holding the lease hostage to a long-simmering dispute with the US agency — but blamed the GSA for waiting too long to inform his committee of its details.
Rebutting Sen. Chuck Schumer’s statement that the deal needs a “final push” by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, panel head Rep. John Mica said through a rep yesterday:
“Chairman Mica and the committee have not held up this GSA lease and Sen. Schumer is aware of that.”
However, the House panel has yet to bless the deal, and until it does, it’s uncertain whether it can go forward.
Schumer earlier this year pushed the beleaguered GSA to get on with completing the lease it had sat on for 12 months since coming to terms with 1 WTC’s owners, the Port Authority and the Durst Organization — who wanted it wrapped up by July 4.
Following Schumer’s intervention, terms of the 20-year commitment have since been approved by the GSA, the PA and Durst, and by a Senate committee — leaving only Mica’s panel to sign off.
But Mica’s rep says he didn’t receive the 1 WTC lease prospectus until “just hours before the committee’s” last meeting. He blamed the GSA for waiting “until the last moment to provide” details and providing “insufficient supporting [data].”
Mica said because of the GSA’s “extremely poor track record in managing federal property,” all leases before his committee “are being closely scrutinized.”
Although that hardly sounded like a promise of swift action, Schumer responded, “I am glad to hear Congressman Mica is intent on moving forward with the GSA lease for 1 World Trade Center and I urge him to do so as quickly as possible.”
A GSA rep said the lease had the “full support” of the Senate and the New York congressional delegation — but not yet of Mica’s panel, and, “GSA would welcome that approval.”
The rep also said the lease would help the federal government “reduce its overall real estate needs in Manhattan.”
A downtown real estate source claimed a final lease signing was “imminent” despite the House roadblock, although it couldn’t be confirmed.
The 270,000 square-foot GSA lease would bring 1 WTC’s 3 million square feet to just over 50 percent committed, an important milestone for the “iconic” tower that will be home to Condé Nast.
But nailing it down has eluded all hands for five years, even though the GSA now wants only half as much space as it first planned.
The newspaper Federal Times recently reported Mica’s panel was sitting on 20 new GSA leases over issues unrelated to 1 WTC — including Mica’s demand that the GSA move the Federal Trade Commission out of a building near the National Mall in DC so it can be used for a Smithsonian Institution gallery.
Reps for the PA and Durst declined to comment.