Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the Wall Street firm that earned $2.3bn last year, stands to get up to $321 million if the state and city fail to meet construction and security deadlines at the World Trade Center site.

Goldman Sachs is entitled to as much as $160m if the state doesn’t fulfill obligations on eight projects, including a transit hub and the Trade Center memorial, by 31 Dec, according to the 2005 lease. The firm also can recover another $161m in rent on the headquarters it’s building downtown under the terms of the lease.

The 16-acre Trade Center parcel remains a construction pit almost eight years after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks and is the focus of a financial dispute between developer Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey over development of three office buildings. Goldman Sachs would get the money in addition to an estimated $390 million state and city incentive package that the New York-based company received to build the $2.4bn skyscraper adjacent to the site.

bloomberg.com