The World Trade Center’s final office tower will start construction as soon as this spring and become the new headquarters of American Express, marking a milestone nearly 25 years after the Sept. 11 attacks destroyed the New York site.
Now a graffiti-covered beer garden, the 2 World Trade Center building will round out the long, tortuous redevelopment of the original 6.5-hectare trade centre property. There remains no construction date for a neighbouring apartment building to replace another 9/11-damaged skyscraper.
But the 2 World Trade Center announcement represents a big step, physically and symbolically, in fulfilling a pledge of renewal at ground zero. City officials also trumpeted the project as a sign of New York’s continued vitality as a business hub, coming as Florida and other states have been trying to woo companies from New York.
American Express CEO Stephen Squeri called the skyscraper “an investment in our company’s future, our colleagues and the Lower Manhattan community,” where the credit card giant has been based for nearly 200 years. Its current headquarters is just west of the trade centre.
The trade centre was decimated when al-Qaida hijackers crashed jets into its twin towers, part of a coordinated attack that also sent planes into the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed, mainly at the trade centre.
Fraught with engineering, financial and political complexities and public debate over what to build, redevelopment unfolded gradually and hit numerous roadblocks.
But over time, the signature 1 World Trade Center skyscraper, other towers, the Sept. 11 memorial and museum, a transit hub-cum-shopping centre and a performing arts centre were built on the property, owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. A damaged Greek Orthodox church was rebuilt in a spot overlooking the plaza.
The 55-storey, roughly 186,000-sq.-m. 2 World Trade Center building is planned at the site’s northeastern corner. The spot is currently occupied by a low placeholder building, covered with colorful graffiti-style murals, and a beer garden.
American Express declined to discuss the cost of the new building, which the company will own, leasing the underlying land.
Plans once envisioned a skyscraper soaring as high as 80 storeys, and News Corp. and the former 21st Century Fox were among companies that at points eyed leasing space there. Like some other trade center components, the project labored for years to secure financing and an anchor tenant. The task grew tougher when the coronavirus pandemic emptied offices in 2020 and raised questions about companies’ future space needs.
Developer Larry Silverstein always insisted the project would happen, however.
Lisa Silverstein, CEO of developer Silverstein Properties hailed American Express as “an iconic institution embodying the strength, resilience, and global significance of the project.”
The company plans to occupy the entire Norman Foster-designed building, a sleek structure of glassy sections interspersed with landscaped terraces and gardens. It’s expected to accommodate up to 10,000 workers. Completion is expected in 2031.
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