Yes, a loss.
Insurance payout minus reconstruction cost minus loss of business (rents payed by tenants). For the Twin Towers, that's
4.6b - 3.1b - 1.8b = -0.3billion US dollars. Notice the negative sign before the result. In accounting, that indicates a loss.
The 1.8 billion in lost business is a VERY conservative estimate, by the way. True loss would be higher. Here is how I calculated it:
- Silversteen pays an annual lease of 100 million to the Port Authority (he still does).
- He signed the deal expecting to make an annual profit that certainly ran into the tens of millions annually.
- Lease and profits add up to around 150 million, and probably a lot more (on an investment of 3 billion, a business man would expect a return of more than the 1.7% that 50 million are). Income from tenant rent, minus maintenance costs which Silverstein doesn't have anymore, must have been at least that high). The new WTC1 won't open before 2013, so Silverstein has this loss for a period of 12 years. 12 * 150 million = 1.8 billion.
So these are my numbers.
Now you calculate who he cut a profit, please, or concede that you can't