An arbitration panel is sending the owners of ground zero and developer Larry Silverstein back to the negotiating table to hammer out a new schedule for rebuilding the World Trade Center site.
But the arbitrators have denied Silverstein's request to stop paying millions of dollars in rent at the site for the next decade.
Both Silverstein and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Wednesday that arbitrators gave them 45 days to renegotiate a timetable.
The panel said "That SPI (Silverstein Properties) may be entitled to have the schedule for completion of the Towers adjusted, but the extent of the adjustment, if any, cannot be determined until a time in the future when more is known about the actual progress of the Towers and of the infrastructure."
Silverstein had claimed the agency was behind schedule and pushed it to guarantee more than $3 billion in financing for his towers.
The arbitrators ruled that any delays weren't sufficient to warrant canceling a 3-year-old agreement that divides responsibilities for rebuilding the site.
"The Panel denied SPI's request for relief from its rent obligations to the Port Authority, meaning that SPI must continue paying its full rent for development rights to Towers 2, 3 and 4," the decision said.
