And Tim O'Connor, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County Health Department, said the building still is not safe: "At this point, it's in the same position as it was."

American Media was ordered from the building on Oct. 8, 2001, three days after a photo editor died from inhaling anthrax sent through the mail.

Real estate investor David Rustine bought the three-story building in April 2003 for $40,000, and Bio-ONE planned to make the building its headquarters after the structure was decontaminated.

Bio-ONE finished interior decontamination, and planned to incinerate the building's contents, packed in about 12,000 boxes.

But the first snag came when freelance photographers threatened to sue Rustine and Bio-ONE if 4.5 million tabloid photos in AMI's photo library were destroyed.

After months of delay, Rustine and Bio-ONE agreed to decontaminate the photographs.

But the job was still a few weeks away from completion when the contract dispute arose, and thousands of boxes remain in the building untreated, according to Karen Cavanagh, Bio-ONE's chief operating officer.

She said the company and Rustine couldn’t agree on a contract extension due to "economic" terms.

"Right now, a move into the building or any lease relationship is moot," Cavanagh told the Sun-Sentinel newspaper.

"In some ways, we need to sit down and start over again."

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