Tag: world trade center

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NYC Real Estate

Development: Downtown’s New Diversity

World Trade Center, Silverstein Properties

THE INFLUX OF NEW BUSINESSES AND FAMILIES HAS LED TO EXCITING NEW DEVELOPMENTS

By Luis Vazquez

Just a little more than a year ago, newspaper accounts were claiming that the growth of Downtown had been derailed by Superstorm Sandy. Now look how far we’ve come.

New industries have been pouring into Lower Manhattan, diversifying the commercial landscape and bringing more people looking for residential opportunities.

Long gone are the days when Downtown was dominated by the financial industry and the sidewalks were rolled up at 5:00 p.m. after the final call of the day. New businesses like Condé Nast, Splashlight Studios, AMI and BMI have brought a vibrant, young and family-focused workforce with them. The Fulton Center subway hub will open next summer as the city’s third largest train station after Penn and Grand Central Stations, serving 300,000 people daily.

All have helped to change the face of Lower Manhattan into a fully realized community.

“The Financial District and Lower Manhattan are in the midst of an exciting transformation period that will improve daily life for the growing number of residents, visitors and all New Yorkers,” says a spokesman for the Howard Hughes Corporation, which is in the midst of its own mixed-used redevelopment of the South Street Seaport with retail, hotel and condo facilities.

As a result, new construction is flourishing on a wide variety of projects that are as diverse as the people they are intended to serve. Just months ago, the doors swung open for the first time at 4 World Trade Center, and the soaring new 1 World Trade is scheduled to do the same next year.

New Diversity is a Development article in DOWNTOWN’s Spring 2014 edition. If you would like to continue reading the whole article, you can find it in our latest issue on newsstands now!

Categories
Business Living Real Estate

Interview: Larry Silverstein, A Man With A View

Larry SilversteinAP Photo/Mark Lennihan

THE MAN BEHIND THE NEW WORLD TRADE CENTER OPENS UP ABOUT HIS GREATEST PROJECT

BY JASON STAHL

There he is, Larry Silverstein, the man famed for rebuilding the World Trade Center and one of the most powerful individuals in this city. He is crouched at his desk, pounding on a computer and im­peccably dressed in a multi-striped blue and red shirt and a perfectly matched tie.

He is Mr. Big Picture, thinking three projects down the road and answering questions I haven’t yet posed. The mercurial developer’s Silverstein Proper­ties is also driving construction of several new buildings on the site, including towers 2, 3 and 4 of the new Trade Center. The 72-floor 4 World Trade Center recently opened to critical acclaim, and the others are planned to be even bigger.

Silverstein believes that the mixed use of the properties on the World Trade Center site, along with its many amenities, including a transit hub connecting more than a dozen subway lines and trains from New Jersey, will make it more vibrant than it has ever been before.

“You’ve got mass transit, which is what business looks for,” he says. “You’ve got first-class space, which is what business looks for. You’ve got a first-class neighborhood. All in all, you’ve got an unbeatable combination,” Silverstein crows.

We had the opportunity to sit down with this architectural icon to hear his thoughts about how he built his empire and to listen to him share his grand vision for the future, as he peered out at his great accomplishments from his office window overlooking Lower Manhattan.

What does the World Trade Center symbol­ize to you? The 16-acre site is the most major, and certainly complex, public-private partner­ship that could have been devised. It’s taken us 12 years to get to today, and we should be done by 2018. It’s been a long haul.

What goes through your mind when you over­look the Trade Center site? I think of the enor­mity of the travail, the challenges, the diversity of opinion, the joy of dealing with six governors of the states of New York and New Jersey. There has been one mayor, five or six chairmen of the Port Authority, five or six executive directors of the Port Authority involved in the process. It exacted a whole range of people saying ‘Stop, I want to look, I want to understand, I want to be sure we’re doing the right thing.’ It caused an enor­mous amount of delay.

Are you surprised by these delays? I expected it to go much faster. I was totally naïve.

If you would like to continue reading the entire interview with Larry Silverstein, you can find DOWNTOWN’s Spring 2014 issue on newsstands.

WTC Site Night, Silverstein Properties, New York, USADBOX. Courtesy Silverstein Properties.

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News

PATH Platform at World Trade Center Reopens

PATH STATION
A glimpse of how the The World Trade Center PATH Station will look upon completion in 2015. Designed by Santiago Calatrava.

The PATH Station has returned to the World Trade Center on Tuesday with the reopening of Platform A. It is the first of its five platforms to be completed. When the others come online, the station will transport more than a 160,000 riders, according to Director of World Trade Center Construction Steve Plate, at the unveiling.

When it is finished, the World Trade Center PATH station will replace the current temporary facility and  feature all-new escalators, elevators and an interior design with modern lighting and brightly illuminated signs for all to see.

The station is the focal point of the nearly $4 billion project which is to include a grand hall designed by notable architect Santiago Calatrava. It will also feature concourses connecting the offices and retail stores across West Street, and access to the New York City subways.

Construction of the station has been a constant topic of debate with constant costs issues and delayed construction. In 2005,  the estimated budget was set at nearly $2 billion dollars and was expected to be covered by the Federal Government, and be fully operational by 2009.

The PATH station  will open in phases as construction continues. the main train station continues its construction. The estimated completion date for the project is 2015.

—Alejandro Ramos