Gargano says governor won't back down on Freedom Tower.

Days after Port Authority chairman Anthony Coscia cast the Freedom Tower's future into doubt by revealing that the building's leasing difficulties may pose an irresolvable financial hurdle to its development, Port Authority vice chairman Charles Gargano asserted in a conversation with Real Estate Weekly that the planned 2.6 million s/f tower would be built and that the controversy surrounding Coscia's remarks had been blown out of proportion.

"I spoke with Anthony Coscia and he said ... when he's asked a question over and over 'but what if, but what if' he answered accordingly and said 'Well listen, we might have to make a change,'" Gargano said of Coscia's remarks, which were made during a Crain's breakfast forum last week.

"I've been in that situation many times, you always try to be a little careful about what you say. Sure anything could happen, but the truth is, the design is a great design and the governor said that the building will be built at that size."

Counter to Gargano's optimism, a source revealed that the Port Authority's efforts to lease the building are far from certain and estimated that the challenge is so formidable, the Freedom Tower's chances of being built are no better than fifty-fifty.

The Port Authority has pledged to secure commitments from various government agencies to occupy 1 million s/f of space in the Freedom Tower by September at which time it has said it will formalize an agreement struck in April with Silverstein Properties outlining the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site.

Just who those government tenants will be, however, has been something of a mystery to the bulk of the city's brokerage community.

The majority of brokers REW spoke with--none of whom would comment on the record--said that they couldn't compile a list of government tenants already in the city that, combined, had significant enough space requirements to absorb the 1 million s/f the Port Authority is trying to lease.

The FBI, Department of Homeland Security and US Customs are all major federal agencies that are rumored to be considering major chunks of space in the building, but officials at the Port Authority or at the individual agencies were notable to confirm that negotiations between the Port Authority or any of the three were, in fact, taking place.

Many leasing experts find the September deadline for the space commitments especially troubling. Leases for large chunks of space often take many months to negotiate.