This was Submitted by jimd3100 on Sun, 03/22/2009 but needs to be more visible

A little history

The Port Authority wanted Silverstein to have the WTC. He didn't win the bid....

"By early this year, the 69-year-old developer was one of three high-profile bidders for the most famous piece of commercial real estate in the world. Steve Roth's Vornado Realty Trust won with an astounding $3.25 billion bid."

"Then a Port Authority representative called to break the news: The hardball negotiating methods for which Mr. Roth is known had tripped him up. The Port Authority was yanking the deal from Vornado and giving it to Mr. Silverstein, who understood the agency's exacting negotiation style."
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-10752644_ITM

He then got as much insurance as he could.....

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, NEW YORK
Monday, Nov 05, 2001, Page 19

"Besides, the lawyers added, the US$3.6 billion worth of insurance was about as much as insurers were willing to underwrite; any more than that would have been prohibitively expensive. As it was, to get so much coverage required policies written by 22 carriers."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/bizfocus/archives/2001/11/05/110245/prin...

"When the Port Authority ran the trade center, it had US$1.5 billion of insurance coverage. The Silverstein group of investors initially sought US$2.3 billion in coverage, about US$700,000 more than the Port Authority required, but lenders wanted more. So Silverstein's partnership raised the coverage to US$3.25 billion and then, about a week after the closing, to US$3.6 billion."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/bizfocus/archives/2001/11/05/110245/prin...

Silverstein and the port authority both sought to use the gov to limit their liability to victims...

"For its part, the Port Authority, a political body that owns the real estate Silverstein leased, has moved cautiously to sort out its plans and interests. So far, said Lewis Eisenberg, its chairman, the agency is focused on two short-term goals: Rebuilding the transportation hub that was under the trade center and trying to limit the authority's liability."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/bizfocus/archives/2001/11/05/110245/prin...

"On Thursday, lobbyists for Larry Silverstein, the developer who holds the lease of the World Trade Center, and for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the property, helped ensure that a bill passed by the House of Representatives on airplane security included broad language protecting them from claims by victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and their families."

"To plead his case in Washington, Silverstein -- who has the least to lose financially and the most to gain -- retained Jack Quinn, the former White House counsel who last January engineered an inauguration-day pardon issued by Bill Clinton for Marc Rich. He lobbied Congress and the Bush administration to limit how much money victims can obtain from Silverstein's real estate companies, which drew criticism from another powerful lobbying group, trial lawyers."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/bizfocus/archives/2001/11/05/110245/prin...
Submitted by jimd3100 on Sun, 03/22/2009