Downtown needs
'Marshall Plan:' Shel

By PAUL D. COLFORD
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Speaker left no doubt yesterday about what he wants - nothing short of a "Marshall Plan" for lower Manhattan.

Recalling the effort that rebuilt postwar Europe, he also left no doubt among some that the governor and mayor better listen if they want his crucial support for a stadium over the West Side railyards.

"Until we honor our obligation to lower Manhattan, no public incentives for commercial development should be provided for the Hudson Yards," Silver told the Association for a Better New York and the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association.

He insisted later he was referring solely to incentives for office development on the West Side - not to the stadium.

"This is Silver's Don Corleone moment," said Doug Muzzio, a professor at the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College. "He's saying to the mayor, 'Make me an offer I can't refuse.'"

Muzzio gave Silver high marks for timing, noting he laid out his needs when stadium approval is vital to the city's Olympics bid, while still giving Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Pataki enough time to respond.

Silver, a Democrat, whose Assembly district includes downtown, proposed that the remaining $3.5 billion in commercial Liberty Bond funds be used to develop Ground Zero, as well as $300 million in uncommitted payments that the Port Authority owes the state through 2021.

He wants the state to consolidate its executive offices now scattered around Manhattan in one of the still-unassigned buildings planned for Ground Zero.

He also recommended government incentives, including $5 per square foot to the first occupants of the nearly completed 7 World Trade Center - a dollar amount developer Larry Silverstein will match.