Janno Lieber, who headed Silverstein Properties’ efforts to rebuild the World Trade Center site, is leaving the private real estate world for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Lieber, 55, will join as the chief development officer at the MTA, a role where he will oversee the agency’s capital projects and real estate assets, the New York Times reported. He’s replacing Michael Horodniceanu, who announced that he was retiring last month.
Lieber, who previously worked under Mayor Ed Koch and the Transportation Department under President Bill Clinton, joined Silverstein in 2003, leading the company’s redevelopment of the World Trade Center. He told the Times that he was ready for a new challenge now that many of the buildings are complete. He also noted his excitement over the governor’s various infrastructure projects.
“Governor Cuomo is talking about infrastructure all day and has demonstrated a passion to really make a huge impact on the infrastructure of the state of New York,” Lieber said.
It’s unclear if anyone will step into Lieber’s position at Silverstein or if his responsibilities will be divvied up. The firm signed music-tech startup Spotify to a 378,000-square-foot lease at 4 World Trade Center, and convinced GroupM to take 685,000 square feet at 3 World Trade Center, which is expected to open next year. But the construction of 2 World Trade Center has stalled without an anchor tenant in place. [NYT] — Kathryn Brenzel