Larry Silverstein

Larry Silverstein was born May 30, 1931 in Brooklyn and built his career in real estate alongside his father through Silverstein Properties. After splitting from partner Bernard Mendik in 1977, he acquired large office buildings across Midtown and Lower Manhattan through the late 1970s. In 1980 he won a Port Authority bid to construct 7 World Trade Center, and when a deal for the original World Trade Center complex fell apart in 2001, he stepped in and signed the lease on July 24, 2001. After September 11, he immediately declared his intent to rebuild but became locked in a multi-year insurance dispute over whether the attacks were one event or two under a policy capped at $3.55 billion per event. Insurers settled in 2007 for $4.55 billion, less than he sought, and the rebuilding brought further clashes with the Port Authority and other parties. Under a 2006 agreement, Silverstein kept rights to three towers while the Port Authority took control of One World Trade Center and Tower Five - the billionaire developer now owns a home in one of his other projects, 30 Park Place, among New York's tallest residential buildings.