And MUNI makes Three.
Larry Silverstein sold $1.6 billion in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds on Tuesday, finally green-lighting full construction of 3 World Trade Center.
And with the deal finally done, the sky’s the limit for the developer — sources said that asking rents in the 80 percent of the tower yet to be leased would start in the high $70s per square foot.
The $2 billion skyscraper, stalled at seven stories, can now soar to its full, 80-story height with 2.8 million total square feet.
“We now have secured all the financing necessary to complete the building in 2018,” Silverstein said in a statement.
Only one office tenant has signed on so far, media giant GroupM for 516,000 square feet.
Silverstein turned to the bond market after the Port Authority balked at his request earlier this year for more backstop financing than it had agreed to provide.
That left Silverstein and GroupM in a potential pickle. GroupM needs to move 2,400 employees out of several other Manhattan locations and into 3 WTC by early 2018.
MUNI market conditions didn’t ripen sufficiently to market the Liberty issue until the past month.
On Tuesday, Goldman Sachs placed about $1.1 billion of senior bonds maturing in 30 years to yield 5 percent, the lion’s share of the total tax-exempt offering, Bloomberg reported.