February 28, 2006
World Trade Center Memorial approaching $1 billion
Costs to build the memorial at the World Trade Center site are approaching $1 billion Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday and the city doesn't want to pick up the bill for day-to-day operations once it opens, the Post reports.
The price for the memorial, scheduled to open in late 2009, was always estimated at far less. The Post explains the mayor's new calculations: The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has estimated the cost of the 6-acre memorial at up to $331 million and a memorial museum below ground level at $162 million — a total of $493 million.
Mayoral aides said Bloomberg's $1 billion estimate also included the "welcome center," a performing-arts center and "shared costs for underground infrastructure with the Port Authority."
The welcome center is expected to come in at $82 million, a bill the state has said it would pay.
The arts center already has a $50 million commitment from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. Its cost has been estimated at $200 million to $300 million.
Officials familiar with the project's cost conceded that Bloomberg's numbers were in the ballpark, but they say he's including the price of building the foundation and other below-ground infrastructure that hadn't been included in earlier public estimates. The Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C., Bloomberg noted, cost less than $15 million.
February 28, 2006 10:00 AM in Downtown
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