Coming Year Will See Big Changes at WTC Site in N.Y.

Twelve years after terrorists destroyed the old World Trade Center, the new one is becoming a reality, with a museum remembering the attacks and two office towers where thousands of people will work set to open within the next year.

A look at the status of the Trade Center’s major components, according to developers:

• The 8-acre memorial plaza with its twin reflecting pools where the World Trade Center towers once stood opened in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Nearly 10 million people have visited. Construction of the accompanying underground museum was delayed by a funding dispute between the memorial foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey but officials say the museum will open in the spring. Sept. 11 artifacts, including a mangled fire truck, are already in place.
• One World Trade Center, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, is scheduled to be completed in early 2014. The 104-story building at the northwest corner of the 16-acre Trade Center site is topped by a spire that reaches the symbolic height of 1,776 feet. Its anchor tenant will be magazine publisher Conde Nast. A three-level observation deck called One World Observatory will open in 2015.
• Jumping the gun on its taller neighbor will be 4 World Trade Center, a 72-story, 977-foot building at the southeast corner of the site. Developers say it will open this November. Its main tenant will be the Port Authority, which owns the Trade Center site and lost its home when the twin towers fell.
• Just north of 4 World Trade Center is 3 World Trade Center, which is now a seven-story stub but will eventually reach 80 stories and 1,150 feet. Developer Larry Silverstein is required to lease at least 400,000 square feet of space before finishing the building. Silverstein is finalizing an agreement with GroupM, a media investment firm that is a division of WPP Group, for 515,000 square feet in the building. Assuming the lease is signed, the building should be completed in 2016.
• The last office tower planned for the 16-acre trade center site is 2 World Trade Center at the northeast corner. The 88-story skyscraper will not be built until the market improves enough to fill it.
• The transportation hub at the trade center is scheduled to be completed in 2015. It original cost estimate of $2.2 billion has been revised to $3.94 billion. It will connect 13 subway lines and PATH trains to New Jersey, serve 250,000 travelers a day and replace the temporary PATH station that was built after the attacks. There will be two levels of retail space.

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the September 10th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.