The St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America filed suit in Federal Court in New York February 14, 2011 against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey claiming that the agency "effectively stole its land at 155 Cedar Street so it could begin construction of the new Trade Center's underground vehicle security garage," according to an article today by Matt Dunning at the TriBeCa Trib.

"'This case arises out of the arrogance, bad faith and fraudulent contract of the Port Authority,' the church wrote in its 37-page complaint against the Authority and several other agencies," the article said, adding that "the suit accuses the Authority of fraud, trespassing and defamation in addition to unlawfully taking the church's land."

The small church was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center.

"After years of negotiations," the article continued, "the Port Authority offered the church a plot of land at 130 Liberty Street - the site of the former Deutsche Bank tower - and up to $60 million to build a new church in July 2008. In exchange, the agency would absorb the church's former site at 155 Cedar Street as part of its above-ground entry into the Vehicle Security Center. The next month the church agreed in principal to the deal and bowed to the Authority's request that the bulk and height of the planned church be reduced. But no agreement was finalized and nine months later the Authority abruptly broke off negotiations, saying it had to start excavating the site for its underground Vehicle Security Center or risk falling further behind in developing the World Trade Center."

The article said that in a statement released Monday the Archdiocese said that "the Port Authority renounced a long-standing agreement with the Church to rebuild at Ground Zero, seized the Church's land [and barred the Church from access to it," adding that "since that time, the Port Authority has rebuffed all efforts by the Church to work with it regarding the rebuilding."

A Port Authority spokesman said the agency would not comment on the specifics of the church's suit against it, adding that it remains open to the idea of rebuilding the church above the security center's entrance at 155 Cedar and the article noted that the church has "repeatedly dismissed that proposal, claiming it would put the church building's entrance several stories above street, hampering handicap access."

The church also accuses the Authority of purposely stalling on the land swap until March 10, 2009. It was then, the article said, that the agency sent the church its "term sheet" on the deal and, subsequently, an email from the Authority's Chief of Capital Planning David Tweedy requesting "any remaining issues and/or questions" regarding the agreement, according to court documents.

"But, the suit goes on to say, the church's request for 'relatively minor points of clarification and finalization' was met by an abrupt response from Tweedy, breaking off negotiations. In that response, the church says Tweedy wrote: 'Our final offer was the term sheet and the associated plans that you received last week. We have made a generous offer and have negotiated in good faith for months. We are terminating negotiations and proceeding with an alternative approach. You will be hearing from our attorneys.' The church claims that if it had known the term sheet was being treated as a "final offer," it would have accepted the deal on the spot."

"The demands of the Orthodox Church continued to increase over and above what was originally agreed to in 2008," agency spokesman Steve Coleman countered in a statement. "The Port Authority had to make a practical decision to move on or risk further delaying the entire World Trade Center project, which was a completely unacceptable alternative."