Sharif El-Gamal, chairman and chief executive of Soho Properties, bought 45 Park Place in July, 2009. "
It's really to provide a place of peace, a place of services and solutions for the community which is always looking for interfaith dialogue."
Plans for the project include a mosque which would accommodate 1,000–2,000 Muslims in prayer.
Rauf won support from the local Community Board, and received both support and opposition from some 9/11 families, politicians, organizations, academics, and others.
The initiative was supported by some Muslim American leaders and organizations, including CAIR, and criticized by some other Muslims such as Sufi mystic Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington.

Controversy over the location—in close proximity to Ground Zero—ensued, and in an interview with Larry King on September 8, 2010, Rauf was asked "... given what you know now, would you have said, listen, let's not do it there?
Because it sounds like you're saying in retrospect wouldn't have done it."
Rauf answered: "If I knew this would happen, this would cause this kind of pain, I wouldn't have done it.
My life has been devoted to peacemaking."
On September 12, 2010 on This Week with Christiane Amanpour, Abdul Rauf repeated that if complaints had been raised in December 2009 when the project was front page news in The New York Times, he would have moved it, but at that time there was broad support for it, which did not change until May. He furthermore expressed concern that a move would be used by radicals internationally to claim that "Islam is under attack in the Western world".

On January 14, 2011, Park51 developer Sharif el-Gamal surprised Rauf by unilaterally announcing that Rauf would no longer speak for or raise money for Park51, replacing him with Imam Abdallah Adhami.
The split was attributed to a number of differences in vision for the project—Rauf had wanted a larger interfaith center named Cordoba House, but el-Gamal had changed the name to Park51, wanted it to primarily serve Muslims, and to have a local scope.
The removal of Rauf from this leadership role raised concerns that the project would be unable to raise the necessary funds to build the planned center.
On January 29, Rauf announced that he would move the Cordoba House to a different site if one were offered to him and if the new site was "on par, or even better" than the current Park51 site.
Sharif El-Gamal, chairman and chief executive of Soho Properties, bought 45 Park Place in July, 2009. "It's really to provide a place of peace, a place of services and solutions for the community which is always looking for interfaith dialogue." Plans for the project include a mosque which would accommodate 1,000–2,000 Muslims in prayer. Rauf won support from the local Community Board, and received both support and opposition from some 9/11 families, politicians, organizations, academics, and others. The initiative was supported by some Muslim American leaders and organizations, including CAIR, and criticized by some other Muslims such as Sufi mystic Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington.
Controversy over the location—in close proximity to Ground Zero—ensued, and in an interview with Larry King on September 8, 2010, Rauf was asked "... given what you know now, would you have said, listen, let's not do it there? Because it sounds like you're saying in retrospect wouldn't have done it." Rauf answered: "If I knew this would happen, this would cause this kind of pain, I wouldn't have done it. My life has been devoted to peacemaking." On September 12, 2010 on This Week with Christiane Amanpour, Abdul Rauf repeated that if complaints had been raised in December 2009 when the project was front page news in The New York Times, he would have moved it, but at that time there was broad support for it, which did not change until May. He furthermore expressed concern that a move would be used by radicals internationally to claim that "Islam is under attack in the Western world".
On January 14, 2011, Park51 developer Sharif el-Gamal surprised Rauf by unilaterally announcing that Rauf would no longer speak for or raise money for Park51, replacing him with Imam Abdallah Adhami. The split was attributed to a number of differences in vision for the project—Rauf had wanted a larger interfaith center named Cordoba House, but el-Gamal had changed the name to Park51, wanted it to primarily serve Muslims, and to have a local scope. The removal of Rauf from this leadership role raised concerns that the project would be unable to raise the necessary funds to build the planned center. On January 29, Rauf announced that he would move the Cordoba House to a different site if one were offered to him and if the new site was "on par, or even better" than the current Park51 site.
Feisal Abdul Rauf