AP Exclusive: Backers of NYC mosque appear divided

NEW YORK (AP) — The group of Muslims planning to build a 13-story Islamic center and mosque near ground zero appears plagued by divisions that raise questions about the future of the project, with one major investor saying he is prepared to sell some or all of the site if the price is right.

Hisham Elzanaty, an Egyptian-born businessman who says he provided a majority of the financing to gain control over the two buildings where the center would be built, told The Associated Press this week that while he supports the concept, he needs to turn a profit.

He said one of the buildings is worth millions if it is redeveloped, and he intends to seize the opportunity. He said he would like to see the other building turned into a mosque, but if his community doesn’t come forward with enough cash for him to break even, he will turn it over to someone else.

“I’m a businessman. This was a mere business transaction for me,” said Elzanaty, a U.S. citizen who has lived on Long Island for decades, owns medical clinics in New York City and invests in real estate on the side.

Representatives of some of the project’s backers said they have just started trying to raise the estimated $100 million needed to build the center and the millions more required to run it.

Elzanaty said his real estate partnership, which paid $4.8 million for half the site last year, has already received offers three times that much to sell that parcel.

“Develop it, raze it, sell it,” he said. “If someone wants to give me 18 or 20 million dollars today, it’s all theirs.”

A spokesman for the developer leading the investment team declined to confirm Elzanaty’s claim that he has a majority stake in the partnership, or comment on whether he needs approval from the rest of the group to decide the fate of the two buildings.

Dealing with potential conflicts among investors is but one of the challenges facing the group trying to organize the center.

The concept was first broached publicly late last year by a group of backers that included Feisal Abdul Rauf, an imam who leads a small Manhattan mosque not far from the World Trade Center, his wife, Daisy Khan, who heads a Muslim nonprofit group, and a real estate investor who is a member of Rauf’s congregation, Sharif El-Gamal.

Together, they outlined a plan to demolish a pair of linked buildings and replace them with a tower that would hold a theater, a health club, a performing arts center, a culinary school and a mosque.

Since then, though, it has been difficult to determine who is in control. The key players in the development are represented by different publicity firms and different lawyers, and have varying agendas and no consistent message.

Rauf left the U.S. just as controversy over the plan was becoming explosive. His first significant public comments in months came in a letter published Wednesday in The New York Times in which he referred to the center as the Cordoba House — a name that had been abandoned by other backers weeks ago in favor of the moniker Park51, which reflects the project’s address.