Developer Larry Silverstein has exercised an option negotiated five years ago requiring the city to rent 582,000 square feet in the second tower going up at the World Trade Center site, The Post has learned.
That’s put the Bloomberg Administration in a funny position.
It’s now got to make plans to occupy what will be some of the priciest real estate in Lower Manhattan, while it downsizes the government and gets rid of 400,000 square feet of unused office space elsewhere.
Under the deal struck in 2006, the city will pay Silverstein $56.50 a square foot when the building known as Tower 4 is ready for occupancy in late 2013.
That’s below the $61 Silverstein is asking for comparable offices in 7 World Trade Center, but well above what the city is used to paying for lower-quality space.
At 250 Broadway, where the City Council is housed, the rent is just $35.07 a square foot through 2014.
One city official stressed that the package negotiated with Silverstein was made primarily to facilitate the development of the troubled World Center site.
“The city could have committed additional cash or capital resources, but the promise to take space was the more desireable approach for us,” said the official.