TIAA was the original mortgage owner.
The excerpt comes from:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO403B.html which indicates that the original source was
Business Wire, October 7, 2000.
Press Release by Blackstone Group:
New York, NY – October 17, 2000: Blackstone Real Estate Advisors, the global real estate investment and management arm of The Blackstone Group, L.P., announced today that it has purchased, from Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, the participating mortgage secured by 7 World Trade Center, a commercial office complex controlled by real estate developer Larry Silverstein.
(...)
Steve Galiotos, a Managing Director of The Blackstone Group, said, “Rising rental rates coupled with the lack of available office space in downtown Manhattan, made 7 World Trade Center an attractive investment opportunity for Blackstone. We are pleased to be a lender to Larry Silverstein, a seasoned real estate veteran, on one of Manhattan’s trophy properties.” 7 World Trade Center is the second investment made by Blackstone in a Silverstein office building. In
April 2000, Blackstone formed a joint venture with Larry Silverstein and Walton Street Capital to own and operate the Equitable Building at 120 Broadway in downtown Manhattan.
http://www.blackstone.com/news/press_releases/7_world_trade_oct_2000.pdfTIAA history (Carnegie Foundation of course. As you might know Carnegie Foundation is PNAC, Bilderberg and many other top elite clubs)
With $15 million, the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 1905 founded the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) in New York City to provide retirement benefits and other forms of financial security to educators. When Carnegie's original endowment was found to be insufficient, another $1 million reorganized the fund into a defined- contribution plan in 1918. TIAA was the first portable pension plan, letting participants change employers without losing benefits and offering a fixed annuity. The fund required infusions of Carnegie cash until 1947.
http://web.archive.org/web/20030811125405/http://burningbush.netfirms.com/TIAA-CREF.htmlOriginally, when Mr. Silverstein developed the property in the 1980s, $449.4 million in debt was provided by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association. In 2000, Blackstone bought the debt from TIAA, financing the purchase by selling $383 million in bonds in a private placement that was lead managed by Banc of America Securities LLC.
- Wall Street Journal (07/10/02) (no longer online)
From:
http://thewebfairy.com/killtown/wtc7/pullit.htmlBlackstone and TIAA (and SEC / Federal Reserve) were already working with one-another prior to the WTC deal drafting the standards for their own oversight:
The slow deliberation by Congress and the SEC has left a vacuum for reformers, and private groups are filling that hole. Last week the Conference Board, a nonprofit group of corporate executives, announced it had formed a committee to draft standards for corporate governance and auditing. The group, cochaired by Blackstone Group Chairman Pete Peterson, will include Intel Chairman Andrew Grove, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, and John Biggs, CEO of teachers pension fund giant TIAA-CREF.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/020701/1sec.htm Bank of America reportedly holds the loan on 7 World Trade Center.
http://www.mbaa.org/reft/stories/0136wtc.htmThe links between Blackstone, CIA, AIG, Carlyle Group, and Henry Kissinger:
One of two founders of The Blackstone Group in 1985, headquartered in New York. Blackstone, a leading global investment and advisory group, has a strategic partnership with Kissinger Associates (of Pilgrims Society and Le Cercle member Henry Kissinger) and AIG. AIG has an ownership interest in Blackstone.
In 2000, Henry Kissinger was quoted by Business Wire: "Hank Greenberg, Pete Peterson and I have been close friends and business associates for decades." 2001, Uri Dowbenko interview with Al Martin, 'The Man Who Knows Too Much': "They're
an asset of the agency . They're not a cut-out. They're just one of the legion of financial companies, mostly domiciled in Washington or northern Virginia, which the CIA turns to, on occasion, to launder money, or for some other illegal purpose...
They had been involved with their Blackstone Investment Group, and they have other partners, originally Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense Richard Stilwell, the son of the famous General Stilwell. Stilwell himself was a retired Major General. Stilwell was also very close to Armitage, Carlucci, and Pete Peterson...
The Carlyle Group, which is Frank Carlucci, and the Blackstone Investment Group are virtually one and the same.
http://home.planet.nl/~reijd050/organisations/introduction/PEHI_Pete_Peterson_bio.htm