The Dearth of Dining at the World Trade Center

While the local restaurant scene is taking two steps forward, dining at the World Trade Center has taken a huge step back: The New York Post reports that the 7,000-square-foot restaurant planned by the Eleven Madison Park team has been abandoned due to “scheduling conflicts,” and the British steakhouse Hawksmoor, which “was supposed to open a 14,000-square-foot jumbo at Three World Trade last year, is ‘now looking at a different location uptown.'” That leaves Eataly and the One World Observatory as the only sit-down dining options in the entire complex for the foreseeable future. (I don’t consider Épicerie Boulud a real restaurant, although I had a tasty palmier there the other day.)

The Post followed this up with a second negative article about 3 World Trade Center, and how the building’s retail spaces appear to be far from ready to welcome tenants, including Tiffany & Co. and Ladurée. Post writer Steve Cuozzo has long been very close to Silverstein Properties; could this two-pronged attack on Westfield, which owns the World Trade Center retail, be at Silverstein’s behest? Surely it would be easier to get office tenants if the mall was livelier.

 

2 Comments

  1. This is absurd. There is no excuse as to why its taking so long to complete the retail portion of 3 WTC or the fact that they couldn’t even be bothered to finish the Church Street sidewalk and remainder of Cortland Way for the grand opening. This would have been great. Pathetic.

  2. The surrounding pavement should have been finished long ago so that retail could get going.