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More WTC rebuilding talks
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October 16, 2001: 7:11 a.m. ET
Brookfield Properties and leaseholder meet to discuss future of site.
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NEW YORK (CNNmoney) - One of downtown Manhattan's largest office landlords entered rebuilding talks with the owner of the 99-year lease on the World Trade Center, according to a published report Monday.
Brookfield Properties Corp.'s (BPO: Research, Estimates) deputy chairman, John E. Zuccotti, said he met with Larry Silverstein about a week ago to discuss a new development where the two trade towers once stood, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Brookfield owns the World Financial Center, which sits to the west of the World Trade Center.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey still owns the World Trade Center site, but Silverstein said owning the lease gives him the "right and obligation" to rebuild, according to the paper. He said he sees rebuilding on a smaller scale, replacing the twin towers with four 50-story buildings.
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Brookfield and Silverstein hired an architect and urban planner to develop preliminary plans for the site, the Journal reported. Toronto-based Brookfield is mulling a tunnel below the street separating its World Financial Center and the WTC and using the atrium in the World Financial Center as a central hub for future mass transit, according the paper.
Silverstein is still hoping to collect $7 billion in insurance claims from the Sept. 11 attacks, but that amount depends on whether underwriters agree that they were two separate incidents, according to the Journal. If the carriers conclude that the attacks were one incident, Silverstein stands to collect $3.5 billion.
Shares of Brookfield Properties fell 28 cents Monday to close at $16.97. 
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