Property mogul Larry Silverstein looks back on the arduous rebuilding of Ground Zero

• Developer Larry Silverstein has a new book about the rebuilding of the World Trade Center after 9/11.
• The book tells of the clashes, frustrations, and personalities at the heart of the redevelopment.
• Now 93, Silverstein also talked to Business Insider about succession at his real estate company.

New York City developer Larry Silverstein will always be indelibly linked with the World Trade Center. His real estate firm, Silverstein Properties, won a heated competition to lease the Twin Towers and the surrounding commercial space from the site's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, two months before the terrorist attacks of 9/11 leveled the property, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Silverstein went on to play a central role in the rebuilding. He sued the site's insurers to recoup about $4.6 billion for the redevelopment, raised three successful commercial towers at the site, 2, 3, and 7 World Trade Center, and helped design and build its signature high-rise, One World Trade Center.

Now 93, Silverstein has written "The Rising: The Twenty-Year Battle to Rebuild the World Trade Center," a 368-page book that details the site's rollercoaster redevelopment from his perspective – including what he describes as bumbling government leadership, treacherous insurers, and unpredictable economic forces. The book will be released on September 10, a day before the 23rd anniversary of 9/11.

Business Insider spoke with Silverstein about the book and his multi-billion-dollar real estate business. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Did you write this book on your own?

I have a ghostwriter Howard Blum. I dictate the material and he would put it into form. We had a zillion lunches together. He was in the apartment. He was on the boat.

The publisher got hold of it and said, change this, alter that. And the result is a much better product than it ever would've been without them. This took about three years.

The World Trade Center redevelopment was long and convoluted. How did you remember all these details?

It stuck. It really stuck. The experiences in the beginning were horrible. There was such controversy surrounding what should we do? How should we do it? Who should be responsible for it? People said, no one's ever going to come down there again. It can never be rebuilt. There were so many naysayers.

In the aftermath of 9/11 you were emphatic about rebuilding, but did you ever privately feel a sense of doubt?

I recall talking to Governor Pataki [former New York Gov. George Pataki], I think it was a day or two days after. He called me quite early in the morning. I said, governor, I think we've got to rebuild. It hit me. I said, you can't leave it this way. You can't let the terrorists win.

He said, should we put back the Twin Towers? I said, honestly, I don't think so. Off the top of my head, it's easy to visualize four towers of 2.5 million square feet each. So that gives you 10 million feet.

Had you contemplated that before?

No.

George Pataki is depicted as bumbling and self-interested. One example, you suggest, was his selection of architect Daniel Libeskind to do the site's master plan even though he didn't technically win a competition for that assignment.

The governor was taken by Libeskind's design. He countered the desires and the decisions of the committee he appointed to make that decision.

You wrote that you later threw Libeskind and his wife, Nina, out of your office, over their insistence that he also design all the towers there.

Well, I didn't throw them out.

I said, Nina, if you had to have brain surgery, would you go to somebody who learned it in one afternoon, or would you go to somebody who's done it all his life? I said, your husband hasn't done high-rises in his life. He's done low-rise buildings. That doesn't indicate any kind of competency for what's required to build a major high-rise. She said, he can learn everything he has to know in one afternoon about high-rises.

At which point I said, well, thank you very much. I appreciate your point of view. This meeting is finished. Good luck. [Libeskind sued Silverstein in 2004 over roughly $845,000 of fees related to his design work on One World Trade Center. The case was settled three months later. ]

That sounds like you threw them out.

I didn't get angry. I didn't show frustration.

In fairness, Dan went on to design a whole host of buildings, high-rises, all kinds, and I think developed a significant practice.

You describe a moment when you asked Governor Pataki to help you collect billions of dollars you were owed from insurers at the site, but he essentially refused.

He said, Larry, I can't do it for you. I was staggered by that. Absolutely staggered. I said, you've always said this is your legacy, as it is mine. I said, did you mean it? I was staggered.

What did you attribute that to at the time?

Is it possible that he's thinking about higher office, public office nationally? Is it possible that he thinks that these insurance companies might be supportive of him?

You didn't have kind words for Steve Roth, another prominent New York real estate developer. You recalled helping him with his bid for the WTC site by connecting him with a financial partner of yours. After he abandoned the deal and you were selected, you later asked him for help, but he essentially rebuffed you.

I said, but Steve, I just voluntarily gave you my financing. He said, well, you are just a much more generous guy than I am. Steve is a brilliant guy. He's done extraordinary things.

Did you go on after that to be friends, or have you had a frosty relationship?

Oh, sure. That lasted with me for about three minutes. Maybe five minutes.

Do you get to see the real sides of people in these dealmaking situations?

Usually the true nature of a person comes out when they're under pressure.

You admit to being a control freak. How did you tolerate all the cooks in the kitchen during the rebuilding?

This became a personal challenge to accomplish this. Especially with the insurers telling me, you'll never accomplish this. You're wasting your time. Get lost. I remember looking at them and saying, I'm a New Yorker. You expect me to just walk away from this? I mean, this is my life.

If 9/11 never happened and the Twin Towers still stood, do you think they would still be successful today?

There were 40,000-square-foot floors. They were essentially column free. The views were spectacular. And so the basics were there. You also had a negative. You have to take two elevators to get to your floor. Most tenants today prefer going directly to their floor with one elevator. Everybody is always in a rush. Then again, we never had an opportunity to find out.

Your daughter Lisa is now CEO of your real estate company. How did your other two children, who are also in the business, feel about that?

Her instincts were excellent, she understood the business, and it became obvious to me that she was the logical successor for me. I sat down with her older sister and older brother, and they understood perfectly what I wanted to accomplish in terms of succession. And they both approved it fully and it just couldn't have worked better or more smoothly.

How involved in the business are you these days?

Still involved in terms of Tower Two and also Tower Five and other new projects. It's my life. I've been doing this for, I don't know, 65, 70 years.

What do you attribute your success to, innate talent or hard work?

I've been an extraordinarily lucky individual. Enormous good fortune. Looking back, it all comes from hard work. I found the harder I worked, the luckier I got, and it's been that way all my life.

How close are you to building Tower 2?

The only thing I could tell you is stay tuned because hopefully there will be development.

You lay out so many examples of how difficult the government was in the redevelopment.

I invited the Port Authority people to come into each of our construction meetings every week to join us so they'd have an understanding of what we were accomplishing.

They came to each construction meeting. And at five o'clock I'd watch and they'd suddenly start to pack up. And I said, where are you going? And they said, what? It's five o'clock.

I looked at them and I said to myself, how could they leave? There's still so much to do. We're still so focused. It would drive me crazy.

Did you ever feel like you made a mistake embarking on the redevelopment?

Maybe I should have, but I didn't because I felt I made a commitment.