Speaker Silver Calls on New York City To Keep Its Commitment To Fund Redevelopment of 9/11 Damaged Fiterman Hall Site

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver today called on Mayor Bloomberg to adequately fund the demolition and redevelopment of the former Fiterman Hall property, which was damaged during the attacks of September 11, 2001. Fiterman Hall, which served as classroom and office space for the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), has stayed up since the attacks despite commitments from the state, federal government, and Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) to demolish, remediate and develop the site at a cost of $340 million.

"For more than six-and-half-years Fiterman Hall has been an unusable and empty structure in the Lower Manhattan community," Silver said. "After years of delays, with community input and participation, adequate plans have finally been approved to safely bring this structure down and redevelop essential classroom and administrative space for BMCC. To achieve this goal the Assembly's Higher Education Chair, Assemblywoman Deborah Glick and I committed an additional $50 million in this year's budget for deconstruction and redevelopment which will remove this daily reminder of the attacks and help the City University of New York create much needed space. Unfortunately, Mayor Bloomberg, in his proposed budget has failed to provide the City's adequate share of funding for this project."

From 1993 to 2001, BMCC used the former office building for classes and other activities.

The project is to be completed with $62.7 million in insurance funds, $60 million from the Federal Emergency Management Administration, $15 million from LMDC and $5 million from the 911 Fund. Additionally, the state and city each pledged to provide $98.6 million to support redevelopment. So far, the city has matched only $20 million, with an additional $78.7 million outstanding.