Days before 9/11, businessman took Twin Towers' lease; now, the rebuilding nears end

South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsing after the twin towers were hit by hijacked planes

Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, the redevelopment of the 16-acre site has entered its final commercial phase, with construction now under way on 2 World Trade Center, the last office tower envisaged in the original master plan.The 55-storey tower at 200 Greenwich Street broke ground in July and is expected to open in 2031 as the new global headquarters of American Express. The nearly 2-million-square-foot building will accommodate up to 10,000 employees and will be the final commercial office building on the World Trade Center campus to be completed or under construction.For Larry Silverstein, whose company holds the development rights to several of the site’s towers, the construction marks the latest step in a rebuilding effort that began after he took the lease on the Twin Towers for $3.2 billion in July 2001, just weeks before the attacks.“New York has always been a city that refuses to walk away from a challenge,” Silverstein told The New York Post. “After 9/11, I made a promise to New Yorkers that we would rebuild the World Trade Center, commemorate those we lost [and] restore commerce to Lower Manhattan.”The road to the final office tower, however, has taken decades. Silverstein spent five years fighting more than 20 insurance companies over payouts following the attacks.

The redevelopment was also complicated by the involvement of multiple government bodies, with 19 agencies at one point overseeing different aspects of the site.The first priority was to establish that Lower Manhattan could once again attract businesses and workers.Silverstein Properties rebuilt 7 World Trade Center, which became the first tower completed at the site after 9/11, followed by 4 World Trade Center, 3 World Trade Center and the redevelopment of the central World Trade Center complex, including One World Trade Center.The towers had to come first, in part, to demonstrate that companies were willing to return to the area before financing another major office development became viable. “Every one of these other buildings kind of had to be built first,” Dara McQuillan, chief marketing and communications officer for Silverstein Properties, told The Post.

American Express gives final tower a path forward

The breakthrough for 2 World Trade Center came when American Express agreed to become the building's anchor tenant and take ownership of the entire tower.The company, which has been headquartered across the street at 200 Vesey Street for nearly four decades, has deep roots in Lower Manhattan and lost 11 employees in the September 11 attacks.“We witnessed firsthand the tragedy of September 11 and mourned the loss of 11 cherished colleagues,” Denise Pickett, President of Enterprise Shared Services at American Express, said at the July groundbreaking. “When many questioned what the future would hold, American Express chose to stay. [With the tower] we reaffirm that choice, and our confidence in the future of this remarkable neighborhood, by building here once again.”The financing commitment came after much of the groundwork for 2 World Trade Center had already been completed. Excavation and foundation work was finished in 2013 as part of construction connected to the Oculus transit hub, meaning the latest groundbreaking did not involve starting the project from scratch.The building will feature more than an acre of outdoor terraces and gardens. Its next major construction milestone is expected to be the topping out of the tower around 2029.The wider World Trade Center campus is now about 97 per cent leased, according to Silverstein Properties.The redevelopment was guided by architect Daniel Libeskind’s 2003 master plan, which divided the site between the memorial and commercial space. The buildings were designed so their office-facing sides look towards the 9/11 Memorial, while retail, restaurants and other commercial activity are concentrated along the surrounding streets.With 2 World Trade Center now under construction, the original commercial vision for the site is close to completion.One major piece still remains unresolved: 5 World Trade Center, a proposed residential tower with roughly 1,200 apartments. The project remains stalled amid rising construction costs, with some costs reported to have increased by as much as 50 per cent, partly amid instability in the Middle East.“The Port Authority remains fully committed to delivering a world class tower at Site 5, including the goal of one third of the units being affordable,” the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.For the World Trade Center, however, the construction of 2 World Trade Center marks a significant milestone: the last commercial office tower from the post-9/11 master plan is finally rising, 25 years after the attacks transformed the Lower Manhattan skyline.