TRENTON, NJ — The nonprofit group that acquired the World Trade Center naming rights for $10 more than two decades ago is defending the deal.
The Record newspaper reports the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has paid a $10,000 membership fee to the World Trade Centers Association since at least 2001. That fee provides for use of the World Trade Center name.
But the WTCA issued a statement Monday saying the Port Authority doesn’t pay it “any royalty or fee to use the World Trade Center mark to brand the buildings in the New York World Trade Center complex.”
The Port Authority had sold the naming rights to the nonprofit in 1986.
The WTCA statement says the Port Authority “actively supported” the nonprofit’s creation.