Sen. Charles Schumer yesterday called on financial giant Goldman, Sachs & Co. to resume plans to build a $1.8 billion headquarters in Battery Park City now that Gov. Pataki has ditched plans to build a tunnel under West Street.
“I urge Goldman to quickly recommit to building on Site 26 and help provide a major shot in the arm for the continued revitalization of downtown,” Schumer said after Pataki dropped the controversial tunnel.
Goldman, Sachs earlier this month had halted plans to build a 40-story tower at Ground Zero, saying the tunnel would bring traffic too close to the building’s entrance and make it difficult for pedestrians and cars to get to the location.
The state will instead build an eight-lane boulevard along West Street, expected to be finished by 2009. The previously proposed $700 million tunnel would have put four express lanes underground as it passed to the west of the World Trade Center.
Pataki said the state would save more than $500 million by not building a West Street tunnel and he hopes to use those federal dollars for construction of a new rail link between Lower Manhattan and JFK Airport.
Schumer, in a statement crediting Pataki for dropping the tunnel, said a full-court press must be made to convince Goldman, Sachs to push ahead with its headquarters project.
“If New York cannot cut through the bureaucratic morass and allow Goldman to build downtown, then something is deeply wrong,” Schumer said.