In the News: 1 World Trade Center Is for Sale

instagram TC 1WTC••• Crain’s says that 1 World Trade Center is going to be put on the market: “Fifteen years after the terrorist attacks, the roughly 3-million-square-foot, $3.8 billion tower is still one-third empty. According to the Citizens Budget Commission, the tower netted the authority $13 million in revenue last year, a figure that equates to a meager 0.35% return on its investment—a rate that doesn’t even keep pace with inflation. The Port Authority now has a plan to transform One World Trade Center from albatross to blue chip. Under pressure to return to its traditional focus on transportation, yet strapped for cash, the agency plans to sell what was originally called the Freedom Tower to the highest bidder—foreign or domestic—for a price executives believe could be as much as $5 billion. That would be the highest price ever paid for an office building in the U.S.”

77 Greenwich rendering••• “After years of planning and months of Landmarks approvals, a 500-foot-tall tower is one step closer to reality at 42 Trinity Place. New building applications were filed over the weekend to erect the 40-story building, which will be formally known as 77 Greenwich Street.” Rendering at right. —YIMBY

••• Design Hunting, the annual shelter magazine from New York magazine, featured the “pod bedrooms” in the loft owned by Zesty Meyers and Maureen Cahill. Zesty is the owner of R & Company on Franklin; I can’t quite tell whether the loft is in Tribeca…. Anyway, the rooms are neat and the issue is good (but not online yet).

••• From a letter in the Broadsheet: “There is now an off-leash area in Battery Park for all dogs enjoyment in the neighborhood. […] We would like to reiterate to everyone that this is a trial period and we are under close watch and evaluation to see if this will be a success. That being said, it has been brought to our attention that some people are not following the park rules before 9 a.m. and after 9 p.m., which we would like to reiterate, this is a NYC Park rule for all NYC parks that allow off leash. Please follow the simple guidelines as posted at the gate entrance.”

••• The New York Times on the Tuck Room, the bar at the iPic cinema opening in the Seaport District.

Tuck Room rendering courtesy iPic

 

5 Comments

  1. Speaking of off-leash areas for dogs, a frustration for Tribeca dog owners: Washington Market Park, the lawns in Battery Park city, and all of the lawns in Hudson River Park are all no-dogs allowed.

    That means as a Tribeca resident if I want to sit outside and have a picnic on grass with my dog, I need to go all the way to Washington Square Park or Battery Park, both a hike, even though the neighborhood is pretty well served for parks generally.

    Couldn’t one or two of the many grassy areas in Hudson River Park permit leashed dogs?

    • I would totally support that if it wasn’t for the fact that I see people with their dogs on some of those dog free lawns every single day.

      • As a law abiding dog owner, what’s my solution then? Should I join them because there’s no support for changing the rules? Maybe if we make the change a) those dogs will better confine themselves to the permitted lawns and b) we can correspondingly increase enforcement and ticketing, as the burden will be lower with fewer dogs to police…

  2. who would really want to rent space in the “Freedom Tower”. It is beautiful and I’m so happy it was built. But if my company want to rent all the way up in the tower I would be opposed to it.
    it is very frightening working on high floors. Especially if you live or work downtown during 9/11 and have experienced it. it is terrible that it may be sold to foreign for the highest bid. this is suppose to stand for Freedom and America!

    • I would work there in a New York Minute and clearly others feel the same as is already 70% leased. Clearly you are entitled to your opinions and no one is forced to work there, but luckily for our city, there are many fewer people that think like you or we would have a big empty lot and the terrorists would have won. Those of us who committed and helped to rebuild our neighborhood are very proud of what we have accomplished. We’ve created a stunning Memorial and Museum so that no one will ever forget what happened, but just as importantly, we rebuilt the site to be even better then it was before, which is an even greater testament.

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