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<p>NEW YORK - The Performing Arts Center planned for the former World Trade Center site was dealt a serious blow on Thursday when the corporation in charge of downtown redevelopment insisted that the project come in at no more than $200 million - about half the original estimated cost.</p><p>The Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which oversees the former World Trade Center site, made it clear at a board meeting that the $99 million in federal funds committed to the project was contingent on the arts center&#8217;s leaders&#8217; producing an affordable design and a viable plan for raising the remaining money from private sources.</p><p>The ultimatum is another setback for a project conceived more than a decade ago as an important cultural hub to help rejuvenate an area once known as ground zero. The arts center - which originally was to contain the Signature Theater and the Joyce Theater - has been curtailed and delayed.</p><p>&#8220;After a review of finances, we believe the project should be scaled down,&#8221; said David Emil, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., adding, &#8220;We are looking forward to seeing whether this can be brought to a successful conclusion.&#8221;</p><p>Maggie Boepple, president of the Performing Arts Center, having been prepared for this development, sounded undeterred at the meeting, saying she already had renderings of a scaled-down design by a new architect.</p><p>&#8220;We can do a great building for $200 million - it has to be built,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It will be smaller; there may be things that you might have liked to see, but that&#8217;s how it is.&#8221;</p><p>Boepple also told the corporation that the arts center was starting to raise money, though later she said she was not ready to announce donor commitments.</p><p>Work on the center cannot begin until its site - bounded by Fulton, Greenwich, Vesey and Washington Streets - is made available. It is occupied by a temporary PATH station.</p><p>Boepple did not identify the new architect at the meeting but said later that one had been selected in a competition.</p><p>&#8220;In my bag is already the second reiteration for this new building,&#8221; she told the board. &#8220;We will be done in eight weeks.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">The Ground Zero site in New York, where a Performing Arts Center was planned to be built upon what is now a temporary transit hub. In another setback for plans for the arts venue, developers have insisted that the project cost no more than $200 million. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_groundzero.jpg</photo0><caption0>The Ground Zero site in New York, where a Performing Arts Center was planned to be built upon what is now a temporary transit hub. In another setback for plans for the arts venue, developers have insisted that the project cost no more than $200 million. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Robin Pogrebin</p><p>The New York Times</p></bylineMeta></div>

Ground Zero Arts Center ordered to shrink further