The Port Authority's board of commissioners authorized a series of agreements this morning that ensures that Ground Zero will be fully restored with the construction of towers 2, 3 and 4 eventually joining the massive One World Trade Center, which is currently rising on the site. The two sides battled famously for two years as the Port Authority - which owns the site - and Silverstein - who holds a 99-year lease to build on the site - could not agree on a financing structure for the towers. The squabbling, along with billions of dollars worth of underground work that needed to be completed before building could go vertical, led to the (mostly unfair) perception that "nothing" was being done at Ground Zero.

The two sides reached what they called a "framework" for a deal in March at a time when confidence in the projects was at an all-time low. A largely negative segment on TV's 60 Minutes aired which showed Silverstein calling the rebuilding efforts at Ground Zero a "national disgrace." Soon after, several New York City labor unions staged a rally near the site in an attempt to pressure the Port and Silverstein to set aside their differences and reach an agreement which remained pretty much intact in the final version that was approved today.

Since that framework was agreed upon there has been considerable momentum on the site: The 104-story One World Trade Center (formerly known as the Freedom Tower) has reached 36 floors and is now rising quickly, at a rate of about one floor every 8-10 days; The Port and The Durst Organization, another New York developer, formed a joint venture partnership which saw the developer sink $100 million of equity into the tower; The Port also signed a letter of intent with Conde Nast for about one million sq ft of office space at One World Trade Center; all of the steel for the 9/11 Memorial has been installed and Tower 4 has climbed out of the ground and is also rising quickly.

There is still an unfortunate public perception that it is an indictment on all parties involved that nothing has been finished on the gigantic 16-acre site. And to a certain degree they're right: various agencies and public officials fumbled the ball numerous times in the early days after 9/11. But their worst crime may have been a simple case of over-promising in an attempt to raise the spirits of a city - and nation - that was still reeling over the attacks. Early pie-in-the-sky announcements by then-Governor George Pataki, the Port, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other dignitaries had the entire site being completed by 2010. However, the only group who believed that to be a realistic timeline was the general public. And that was enough to create a nearly decade-long PR disaster.

But it's a disaster that is showing some signs of letting up. And finally making good on the tentative agreement reached nearly five months ago is another major step in the right direction.

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