Still little construction progress on the world's largest "For Rent" sign

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Everybody loves to hate their landlord. Larry Silverstein, the controversial leaseholder of the World Trade Center site is no different.

Most people would agree that Silverstein, 75, is the evil landlord in the World Trade Center construction controversy. After all, he's old, cranky, and he signed a 99-year lease on the property just six weeks before a couple airplanes turned it into, as Ray Nagin put it, "a hole in the ground."

But despite the lack of progress in building the world's largest "For Rent" sign (er, the Freedom Tower), Silverstein, is still paying $10 million a month in rent to his landlord, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which makes him just another disgruntled tenant.

While the 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower has faced delays, redesigns, squabbles, and all under the microscope of the international media, Silverstein has been quietly working in the background on that which he can control. Namely, an adjacent building called Seven World Trade Center.

The rebuilding process on building 7, has been much faster and easier for several reasons, including that no one died in that particular collapse, and the property is part of a separate, earlier lease Silverstein made prior to the main WTC site.

Seven World Trade Center is the only building planned for the area which carries the same name as its predecessor. The original Seven World Trade Center, while not hit by an aircraft, was significantly damaged after the collapse of the twin towers and burned for serveral hours.

Silverstein recounted in the PBS documentary "America Rebuilds" that the decision was made later in the day on September 11th to "pull" the building. That means, depending on who you ask, that they decided to either pull the firefighters out of the building fearing an impending collapse, or that the building itself was somehow intentionally demolished.

Regardless, the new 52-story, Seven World Trade Center building has already been completed. It opened for business in May 2006, and now about 50% leased, it houses Silverstein's personal office, which overlooks Ground Zero.

Meanwhile, although the Freedom Tower's cornerstone was laid in a cermony in July 2004, it is expected to be as late as 2008 before construction progress on that building even reaches the street level.

All along, until there is actually an inhabitable building that tenants will actually feel safe moving into, Silverstein will be contractually obliged to continue paying $10 million a month in rent. And you thought your landlord was a jerk for not fixing the toilet.