It really is exciting for the Port Authority to be sharing this stage with Silverstein Inc.

I don’t think it’s any secret that we’ve had some pretty tough negotiations over the years. But the reality is that Larry and I standing here on stage is a reflection of what we see from our organizations at the World Trade Center site every day – a commitment to progress, to partnership, to the work.

Business is business, but this is building, and we are – all of us – getting an enormous amount of building done. The momentum has been growing for more than a year, since the Port Authority took the lead in laying the foundations and coordinating the activity at the site.

A lot of what Larry and I came to talk to you about today is how much is happening – how much has already happened – at the World Trade Center site. And really, pictures don’t do justice to the change we’ve seen, which is why we brought this terrific time lapse film by Marcus Robinson along to give you a better sense for the pace and pulse of the site these days.

Indeed, in just the last year and change, we have excavated more than 320,000 tons of dirt and rock – enough to fill Giants Stadium – and poured more than 20,000 cubic yards of concrete into slurry walls and tower foundations.

Construction on One World Trade Center, the Freedom Tower, is moving forward. As we sit here, steel erection on the tower is topping 70 feet, putting it within 10 feet of ground level. We expect to reach past street level in a few months.

We’ve bid more than $2 billion worth of contracts, including more than 90% of the Freedom Tower construction awards, and the building has remained on budget despite rising costs across the industry. And even as we’ve been putting in place the brick and mortar foundations of the site, we’ve been shoring up its long-term financial foundations too.

We struck a $2 billion insurance settlement that paves the way to completion of construction. We struck a $300 million deal with JP Morgan Chase for Tower Five that will ensure the site’s place in the first ranks of the financial world. And we put together a $1.4 billion public/private partnership with the Westfield group to make the site a global retail destination.