NYC 9/11 memorial needs $60 million/year
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 12:20 pm
NYC 9/11 memorial needs $60 million/year
Security for site boosts maintenance cost critics say is unsustainable
5:59 AM, Sep 10, 2012
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/view ... ext%7C%7Cs
NEW YORK — With its huge reflecting pools, ringed by waterfalls and skyscrapers, and a cavernous underground museum still under construction, the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center is an awesome spectacle that moved and inspired some 4.5 million visitors in its first year.
But all that eye-welling magnificence comes with a jaw-dropping price tag. The foundation that runs the memorial estimates that once the roughly $700 million project is complete, the memorial and museum will together cost $60 million a year to operate.
The anticipated cost has bothered some critics and raised concerns even among the memorial’s allies that the budget may be unsustainable without a hefty government subsidy.
By comparison, the National Park Service budgeted $8.4 million this year to operate and maintain Gettysburg National Military Park and $3.6 million for the monument that includes the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Running Arlington National Cemetery, which has more than 14,000 graves and receives 4 million visitors a year, costs $45 million annually.
Officials at the 9/11 memorial say they face unique challenges that make comparisons to other national memorials difficult.
The foundation plans to spend at least a fifth of its operating budget, or around $12 million per year, on private security because of terrorism fears. Visitors to the memorial plaza pass through airport-like security, and armed guards patrol the grounds.
“The fact of the matter is that this was a place that was attacked twice,” said Joseph Daniels, the foundation’s president and chief executive.
Just operating the two massive fountains that mark the spots where the twin towers once stood will cost $4.5 million to $5 million annually, said the foundation’s spokesman, Michael Frazier.
Foundation officials didn’t respond to requests for information about other costs at the site, including the anticipated expense of running the museum, which is still unfinished and might not be soon.
(Page 2 of 2)
The museum was supposed to open this month, but construction all but ceased a year ago because of a funding squabble between the foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land the memorial sits on.
Daniels said it would take at least a year for the museum to open once construction resumes.
The failure to open the museum on time has thrown off the foundation’s financial planning. Officials had expected to use the museum, being built mostly with money from various government agencies, plus private donations, as its main source of revenue.
While visitors will be allowed into the aboveground portions of the memorial for free, the foundation plans to charge people to descend into the museum’s exhibition space, where they will see portraits of the nearly 3,000 victims, hear oral histories of the tragedy, and view artifacts such as the staircase World Trade Center workers used to flee on 9/11.
The admission price hasn’t been set. Foundation officials say they may also charge a “suggested donation” where visitors would be allowed to enter for free but would be strongly encouraged to pay a yet-undecided amount. But if the museum gets the 2 million visitors a year the foundation expects, a $12 fee, like the one charged at the memorial to the victims of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, would cover 40 percent of the operating costs. More money will be generated through fundraising and the sale of memorabilia.
In addition, the foundation and several elected officials have proposed that the American public pick up one-third of the operating costs.
A look at the status of the trade center’s major components, according to its developers:
• Most of the 8-acre memorial quadrangle at the World Trade Center opened last year on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Since then, some 4.5 million people have visited the memorial, with its twin reflecting pools where the towers stood. But a museum being built in a cavern beneath the plaza is still incomplete.
• One World Trade Center, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, will open in 2014 on the northwest corner of the trade center site with 3 million square feet of office space.
• The first office building to open in October 2013 will be the 72-story 4 World Trade Center at the southeast corner of the site.
• Just north of 4 World Trade Center is 3 World Trade Center, which is now an eight-story stub but will reach 80 stories and 1,150 feet when it’s complete.
• At the site’s northeast corner, 2 World Trade Center is up only to street level. The building is planned as an 88-story skyscraper but will not be built until the commercial real-estate market picks up enough to fill it.
• The new transportation hub at the trade center will connect 13 subway lines and PATH trains to New Jersey when it opens in 2015.
• An underground vehicle security center and bus parking facility just south of the main trade center site will open in 2013.
Security for site boosts maintenance cost critics say is unsustainable
5:59 AM, Sep 10, 2012
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/view ... ext%7C%7Cs
NEW YORK — With its huge reflecting pools, ringed by waterfalls and skyscrapers, and a cavernous underground museum still under construction, the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center is an awesome spectacle that moved and inspired some 4.5 million visitors in its first year.
But all that eye-welling magnificence comes with a jaw-dropping price tag. The foundation that runs the memorial estimates that once the roughly $700 million project is complete, the memorial and museum will together cost $60 million a year to operate.
The anticipated cost has bothered some critics and raised concerns even among the memorial’s allies that the budget may be unsustainable without a hefty government subsidy.
By comparison, the National Park Service budgeted $8.4 million this year to operate and maintain Gettysburg National Military Park and $3.6 million for the monument that includes the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Running Arlington National Cemetery, which has more than 14,000 graves and receives 4 million visitors a year, costs $45 million annually.
Officials at the 9/11 memorial say they face unique challenges that make comparisons to other national memorials difficult.
The foundation plans to spend at least a fifth of its operating budget, or around $12 million per year, on private security because of terrorism fears. Visitors to the memorial plaza pass through airport-like security, and armed guards patrol the grounds.
“The fact of the matter is that this was a place that was attacked twice,” said Joseph Daniels, the foundation’s president and chief executive.
Just operating the two massive fountains that mark the spots where the twin towers once stood will cost $4.5 million to $5 million annually, said the foundation’s spokesman, Michael Frazier.
Foundation officials didn’t respond to requests for information about other costs at the site, including the anticipated expense of running the museum, which is still unfinished and might not be soon.
(Page 2 of 2)
The museum was supposed to open this month, but construction all but ceased a year ago because of a funding squabble between the foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land the memorial sits on.
Daniels said it would take at least a year for the museum to open once construction resumes.
The failure to open the museum on time has thrown off the foundation’s financial planning. Officials had expected to use the museum, being built mostly with money from various government agencies, plus private donations, as its main source of revenue.
While visitors will be allowed into the aboveground portions of the memorial for free, the foundation plans to charge people to descend into the museum’s exhibition space, where they will see portraits of the nearly 3,000 victims, hear oral histories of the tragedy, and view artifacts such as the staircase World Trade Center workers used to flee on 9/11.
The admission price hasn’t been set. Foundation officials say they may also charge a “suggested donation” where visitors would be allowed to enter for free but would be strongly encouraged to pay a yet-undecided amount. But if the museum gets the 2 million visitors a year the foundation expects, a $12 fee, like the one charged at the memorial to the victims of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, would cover 40 percent of the operating costs. More money will be generated through fundraising and the sale of memorabilia.
In addition, the foundation and several elected officials have proposed that the American public pick up one-third of the operating costs.
A look at the status of the trade center’s major components, according to its developers:
• Most of the 8-acre memorial quadrangle at the World Trade Center opened last year on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Since then, some 4.5 million people have visited the memorial, with its twin reflecting pools where the towers stood. But a museum being built in a cavern beneath the plaza is still incomplete.
• One World Trade Center, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, will open in 2014 on the northwest corner of the trade center site with 3 million square feet of office space.
• The first office building to open in October 2013 will be the 72-story 4 World Trade Center at the southeast corner of the site.
• Just north of 4 World Trade Center is 3 World Trade Center, which is now an eight-story stub but will reach 80 stories and 1,150 feet when it’s complete.
• At the site’s northeast corner, 2 World Trade Center is up only to street level. The building is planned as an 88-story skyscraper but will not be built until the commercial real-estate market picks up enough to fill it.
• The new transportation hub at the trade center will connect 13 subway lines and PATH trains to New Jersey when it opens in 2015.
• An underground vehicle security center and bus parking facility just south of the main trade center site will open in 2013.
big enough.
