Silverstein laughs all the way to the bank
Larry Silverstein, a reputed illicit-sex-industry mobster, purchased the World Trade Center in 2001, shortly after the New York Port Authority lost an asbestos lawsuit and was ordered to remove all asbestos from the Twin Towers. Cost estimates for that asbestos removal ranged from the low billions to the tens of billions – far more than the outdated, half-empty buildings were worth. (The City of New York had been desperately seeking a way to demolish the Towers since around 1990, but was prevented from doing so by asbestos issues.)