The Metropolitan Television Alliance and Silverstein Properties have a
tentative deal to place New York-area TV stations atop Freedom Tower, a
1,776-foot office tower that Silverstein will build on the site of the former World
Trade Center.
"This agreement is a big accomplishment and a major step for the MTVA and New
York City broadcasters," MTVA president Ed Grebow said.
Silverstein Partners spokesman Howard Rubenstein added that Larry Silverstein
always wanted the MTVA to located its tower on top of Freedom Tower. "And now,
it's much closer to reality," he said.
A meeting is scheduled for next Thursday to determine whether the timetable
of Freedom Tower's construction obviates the need to build a temporary
broadcast tower on Governors Island.
Ground is expected to be broken on Freedom Tower in the summer of 2004,
and broadcasters should begin operating from the tower by 2008.
The deal will place broadcast and antenna facilities for a number of New York
City broadcasters at or near the top of the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, which will
dominate Manhattan's skyline the way broadcasters' former home, the WTC, once did.
The MTVA comprises all of the city's major TV broadcasters: ABC (WABC-TV); CBS
(WCBS-TV); Tribune Broadcasting (WPIX[TV]); Fox (WWOR-TV and WNYW[TV]); NBC (WNBC[TV] and
WNJU[TV]); Paxson Communications Corp. (WPXN-TV); Univision Communications Inc. (WXTV[TV]); and WNET.
