It's a good thing Salomon Brothers took such a huge lease on WTC seven because Silverstein was in a bit of a bind before the building was even completed. Originally a billion dollar deal was about to be completed where the entire building would be leased to Drexel Burnham Lambert. But it didn't work out when things went bad as the junk bond market tanked.
"The investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert (best known for its star dealer, the notorious "junk bond king" Michael Milken) was to become a tenant in 1986 but backed out."
http://www.greatgridlock.net/NYC/nyc4.html#82b
"Drexel Burnham Lambert, the investment house, agreed only two months ago to take an equity interest in the project and also lease the entire building for 30 years."
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DEFDC1430F934A15754C0A960948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
And then Salomon Brothers comes to the rescue. Not leasing the entire building but well over half.
"Salomon said it would sign a 20-year lease on slightly over one million square feet, or just over half the space in the tower. A Billion in Rental Fees...
Larry Silverstein, a New York developer who built 7 World Trade Center on land owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said yesterday that finding a major tenant had not been easy because the rent was high. He said Salomon would pay more than $1 billion over 20 years"
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE1D7153FF93AA15752C1A96E948260
No other tenant was even close the the amount Salomon was leasing. ITT Hartford was the next largest tenant with just 10% of what Salomon was leasing. Salomon was by far the major source of the owners income on building 7.
"Tenant Square Feet Leased Floor Industry
Salomon Smith Barney 1,202,900
ITT Hartford Insurance Group 122,590"
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/tenants7.html
But when in late 1997 Travelers group bought Salomon and the name became Salomon Smith Barney they no longer needed or wanted to be in WTC 7. In fact it was costing them lots of money.
"Travelers to Buy Salomon Bros. for $9 Billion
Salomon will be folded into Travelers' huge brokerage unit, Smith Barney Inc."
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/18870894.html?dids=18870894:18870894&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Sep+25%2C+1997&author=THOMAS+S.+MULLIGAN&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=Travelers+to+Buy+Salomon+Bros.+for+%249+Billion&pqatl=google
"Salomon Lease May Cost Millions
Salomon Brothers has been unlucky in real estate in the past, and might lose millions of dollars on its lease at 7 World Trade Center. The investment bank known for making huge profits buying and selling bonds agreed to be acquired by Travelers this week and plans to move into Travelers offices at 388 and 390 Greenwich Street in Manhattan."
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980DEEDC163AF935A1575AC0A961958260
"Salomon stands to lose millions of dollars on its lease when the firm abandons most or all of its space at 7 World Trade Center and moves its traders and investment bankers six or seven blocks north to the Travelers complex at 388 and 390 Greenwich Street in Manhattan.
Salomon Brothers leases 24 floors, or 1.1 million square feet, at 7 World Trade Center, a two-million-square-foot tower built in 1987. Downtown real estate brokers say that Salomon is paying about $40 a square foot, or $56 million a year, for the space on a lease that extends until 2013.
As a result of the merger with Travelers' Smith Barney investment bank, 1,500 bankers, traders, analysts and office workers are expected to lose their jobs. According to Travelers, many of the remaining Salomon executives will move to the offices on Greenwich Street.
Salomon will find no shortage of tenants interested in subleasing its space at 7 World Trade Center, says George Keller, a commercial broker at Cushman & Wakefield. But it is highly unlikely, he said, that any tenant will pay more than market rate, about $30 a square foot. The firm would have to make up the difference between the two numbers, say $5 million a year for the next 16 years if Salomon were to sublease 500,000 square feet.
''They'd take a hit,'' Mr. Keller said."
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950CE0DF163AF935A1575AC0A961958260
It was shortly after this in 1998 that Citicorp and it's connections with the Federal Reserve entered into the picture and purchased Travelers and the new headache at WTC 7.
"NEW YORK, April 6: Banking giant Citicorp and financial services titan, Travelers Group Inc, said on Monday they plan to merge in the largest-ever corporate marriage, creating a global powerhouse to be called Citigroup."
http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19980407/09750344.html
"Citigroup was formed on October 8, 1998 following the $140 billion merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group to create the world's largest financial services organization.
It became the first contributor to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 1913, and the following year it inaugurated the first overseas branch of a U.S. bank in Buenos Aires. The 1918 purchase of U.S. overseas bank International Banking Corporation helped it become the first American bank to surpass $1 billion in assets, and it became the largest commercial bank in the world in 1929."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citigroup
"Citicorp is the holding corporation for Citibank, which was formed by the merger of the National City Bank of New York (formerly City Bank of New York) and the First National Bank of New York.
The City Bank of New York was organized two days before the start of the War of 1812. This was the period in U.S. history between the end of the first Bank of the United States and the start of the second Bank of the United States.
Since it lacked a central bank, the U.S. government relied on private banks to finance its participation in the War of 1812, and City Bank's first loan was $500,000 for that purpose.
In 1865 City Bank was chartered as the National City Bank of New York under the recently passed National Bank Act.
One of the early investors in the newly chartered bank was William Rockefeller, who was John D. Rockefeller's younger brother and a cofounder of Standard Oil."
http://www.trivia-library.com/b/largest-banks-in-the-world-citicorp-and-citibank-part-1.htm
While they were still stuck with this lease that they didn't want, another group with ties to the FED 11 months before 9/11 actually then purchased the mortagage to WTC 7.
"BLACKSTONE ACQUIRES DEBT ON 7 WORLD TRADE CENTER
The Blackstone Group, a private investment bank with offices in New York and London, was founded in 1985 by its Chairman, Peter G. Peterson, and its President and CEO, Stephen A. Schwarzman."
http://www.blackstone.com/news/press_releases/7_world_trade_oct_2000.pdf
"Peter G. Peterson--He was also chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from (2000–04)"
http://www.iie.com/institute/peterson-bio.cfm
"Schwarzman attended Yale at the same time as G Bush. He also was a member of a death cult with G Bush called Skull & Bones.."
http://www.nndb.com/org/723/000041600/
"Schwarzman's link to people in power extends beyond the world of high finance and big business, as he and President George W. Bush were roommates while attending Yale University in the 1960s. Their relationship was further cemented by virtue of the fact that they were also Skull and Bones brothers during that time."
http://uk.askmen.com/specials/2007_top_49/stephen-schwarzman-37.html
And then when 9/11 happened they evidently got out of that pesky money losing lease which is what they wanted, looks like 9/11 was a lucky break for them. They were renting to much office space.
"Citigroup immediately had to relocate 2,500 employees who had been housed in 7 World Trade Center, a building that collapsed a few hours after the Twin Towers. Most of those employees were subsequently housed in existing bank offices throughout the New York metro area. But even after that, the bank finds itself with surplus space."
http://web.archive.org/web/20020905132734/homes.wsj.com/plotsploys/plotsploys/20011024-grant.html
"Thermal expansion" sure was a lucky break for all the major players involved. The owner, the major leaseholder, and the mortgage holder. Who says 9/11 was a tragedy? The lucky breaks just keep coming.....
"Citigroup Facing Subpoena in IPO Probe
Rep. Michael Oxley (R., Ohio) said Friday that a subpoena is necessary because Citigroup provided insufficient information about what, if any, special treatment its Salmon Smith Barney investing banking division may have given WorldCom executives. Salomon had been one of the now-bankrupt telecom's principal investment bankers.
But Citigroup says some information that the committee is seeking was destroyed in the Sept. 11 terror attack on the World Trade Center. Salomon had offices in 7 World Trade Center, one of the buildings that collapsed in the aftermath of the attack. The bank says that back-up tapes of corporate emails from September 1998 through December 2000 were stored at the building and destroyed in the attack."
http://web.archive.org/web/20021215143701/www.thestreet.com/markets/matthewgoldstein/10036925.html
No it certainly isn't called the Salomon building anymore. Now you know why they didn't move into the new WTC 7 building. They wanted out of the old one.
"The only completed tower at Ground Zero — the 52-story, SOM-designed 7 World Trade Center, which opened in 2006—is only 75 percent filled."
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/sep2008/id20080915_858092.htm?chan=innovation_architecture_top+stories
As interesting and coincidental as this may be, there is something possibly even more interesting and coincidental going on on the morning of 9/11 at WTC 7. It has been said that there was never any evidence of explosives at ground zero. How do we know this? If the Secret Service had military personal who are experts in explosives recovery at ground zero and they found something do you think they would tell us? Would there be anything to find anyway? Might be prudent to have them there just in case don't you think? It's a little known fact that for some "coincidental" reason the secret service summoned experts in explosives recovery to be at the WTC on the morning of 9/11.
"Teams of CECOM experts from Fort Monmouth were deployed to ground zero in New York with equipment capable of locating cellular phone transmissions within the ruins of the structures that collapsed, according to Timothy L. Rider, a spokesman for the Army base.
Rider said the 754th Ordnance Company (explosive ordnance) from Fort Monmouth was also deployed in New York to assist authorities should they come across anything they think might be explosives while digging through the debris in search of victims.
The 754th Ordnance Company can safely set off or render inoperative any explosive that is found, Rider said."
http://hub.gmnews.com/News/2001/0921/Front_Page/007.html
What they fail to tell you in that article is the the Secret Service had arranged that not only Army explosive recovery experts be at ground zero but others from the Navy be there as well. Not in response to the WTC disaster. But to be there on the morning of 9/11, I guess just in case they were needed? They were not called in response to the attack. They were already there at the requst of the Secret Service.
"Richard J. Spanard, Beta Tau ’93 (Slippery
Rock University) is a U. S. Army
captain and commander of an Explosive
Ordnance Disposal company
based in northern New Jersey. On the
morning of September 11, he was enjoying
breakfast at a deli 50 feet from
the World Trade Center twin towers
when the first plane hit. General
hysteria inundated the deli. Spanard
decided that he and the three
soldiers with him should move to
number 7 World Trade Center, where
they had a scheduled meeting."
http://www.sigmataugamma.org/file_depot/0-10000000/20000-30000/26446/folder/63809/sagawinter02.pdf
You see they were already there. Before any plane hit. For a SCHEDULED meeting in WTC 7. Who were they Scheduled to meet with? The answer as you will see is the Secret Service. But first a little background on this outfit.
"The 754th Ordnance Company (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) came to Fort Monmouth from Camp Kilmer in 1966. Their mission is to train police, fire and public officials in explosive ordnance disposal and bomb threat search techniques, as well as to reduce the hazard of domestic or foreign conventional nuclear, chemical, biological and improvised explosive ordnance that personnel or outside activities may encounter."
http://www.monmouth.army.mil/historian/history.php
Their base just happened to be conducting an excercise on 9/11.
"FORT MONMOUTH, N.J -Lt. Col. Stephen N. Wood, Garrison commander, here. "By sheer coincidence we were scheduled to conduct "Timely Alert II," a force protection exercise on Sept. 11 and because of that, some of the concrete barriers were already in place."
Wood said people on post told him when they first saw live footage of the events unfolding at the World Trade Center, they thought it was some elaborate training video to accompany the exercise."
http://www.amc.army.mil/amc/pa/oct01.html
They are an explosives recovery team from the Army.
"Fort Monmouth is an installation of the Department of the Army in Monmouth County, New Jersey."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Monmouth
But explosives recovery teams from the Navy were also told to meet with the Secret Service at WTC 7 on the morning of 9/11 as we can see here....
“I don’t feel like a hero,” admitted Chief Boatswain’s Mate, Explosive Ordnance Disposal, (EOD) Jim Prewitt
That morning, Prewitt, assigned to EOD Mobile Unit 6, was working as a team leader with the U.S. Secret Service in New York City. While on his way to a brief in building seven of the World Trade Center Complex, the first plane struck the north tower."
http://www.news.navy.mil/search/print.asp?story_id=4866&VIRIN=3463&imagetype=1&page=1
That news release by the Navy is proof he was there also for a brief in building 7 before the first plane hit, and it was with the Secret Service.
So we have Army and Navy Explosive recovery teams at the WTC on the morning of 9/11 at the request of the Secret Service just before the attacks, and before the trade center towers came down and "thermal expansion" took out a building for the first time ever.
"EOD Mobile Unit Six is homeported at Naval Weapons Station, Charleston S.C."
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2005/05/mil-050505-nns01.htm
A little background on the Navy explosives team....
"U.S. Navy EOD, a force of about 1,300 officers and enlisted Sailors, is the world's premier combat force for countering improvised explosive devices, weapons of mass destruction and all other types of weaponry. An elite team of warriors, Navy EOD technicians are the "first in"--clearing the way for further combat operations in every environment--on the ground, in the air and under the sea."
http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=38521
While this article confirms they were working with the Secret Service on 9/11, they fail to mention why they were there before any attack.....
" Manama, Bahrain (Nov. 25, 2002) -- The Navy and Marine Corps Medal is pinned on the uniform of Chief Boatswain's Mate Jim Prewitt. Chief Prewitt was presented the medal for heroism while serving with Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Six, Charleston, S.C., on Sept. 11, 2001, where he displayed extraordinary heroism and bravery in the face of extreme danger. Chief Prewitt was working with the Secret Service in New York City during the attack on the North Tower of the World Trade Center."
http://www.news.navy.mil/list_single.asp?id=3463
These guys have been pretty busy lately...
"Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs - also known as the infamous roadside bombs, are the single most deadly threat to troops in Iraq. Fort Monmouth’s own 754th Ordnance Company deploys there this spring and will be tasked with the mission to directly engage and minimize that threat.
EOD does not conduct searches, except in support of the Secret Service,” explained Capt. Shawn L. Kadlec, 754th Ordnance Company Commander."
http://www.monmouth.army.mil/monmessg/newmonmsg/jan272006/m04EOD.htm
Why did the Secret Service schedule a meeting with military explosives recovery teams on the morning of 9/11 at the WTC complex?
"Although locating, identifying, and disposing of foreign and domestic explosive devices is the primary mission of EOD, supporting missions for the Secret Service, State Department, and other Federal Agencies are also a large portion of the EOD’s job."
http://www.monmouth.army.mil/monmessg/newmonmsg/jun082007/m23eod.htm
