Church destroyed on 9/11 sues to rebuild

The Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas at Ground Zero is threatening to sue the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, saying the bi-state agency broke an agreement to allow the church to rebuild at the World Trade Center site.

The Port Authority "out of arrogance, bad faith and fraudulent conduct" reneged on its agreement, according to a notice of claim filed Monday by the Hellenic Eastern Greek Orthodox Church at Saint Nicholas for the Downtown Part of the City of New York and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

The church was built in 1916 and was the only church destroyed on 9/11. "We would hope to work this out," said Father Mark Arey, ecumenical officer of the Greek Orthodox Diocese. "We need to rebuild the church. This is hallowed ground and rebuilding the church has to be done for the soul of the city and the soul of America."

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese says it gave the Port Authority its property rights at 155 Cedar St. so the authority could build its new Trade Center Vehicle Security Center for its underground parking garage. In exchange, the Port Authority agreed to give the church surface rights at 130 Liberty St. for the church's new home.

A lawsuit will be filed in 60 days if "good faith" talks do not resume to rebuild St. Nicholas, said the church's lawyer, Mark Cunha.

Cunha said the church filed its notice of claim after Port Authority bulldozers excavated the land at both locations without permission. "This was a blatant taking of church property," he said of the Cedar Street plot.

The Port Authority, in a statement, said that the church keeps increasing its demands. "After nine months of negotiations in which the demands of the Orthodox church continued to increase over and above what we originally agreed to in 2008, we had to make a practical decision to move on or risk further delaying the World Trade Center project," the Port Authority said.

In 2008, the Port Authority agreed to pay $20 million to help the church with its rebuilding costs.

Cunha said one bone of contention in the final agreement was that the Port Authority wanted the church to give up its property rights without a guarantee of an alternate site at the World Trade Center.