The first office tower at Ground Zero since the September 11, 2001 attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center will open on Wednesday, marking a comeback for the Lower Manhattan site.
Sheathed in glass, 4 World Trade Center is the smallest of the four main towers on the site where 2,700 people died when hijacked airplanes crashed into the towers. It stands 977 feet (298 meters) tall - a shorter, simpler version of One World Trade Center, which will not be completed until early 2014.
The 72-story building stands empty at the moment, although two government agencies have signed leases for half of the building's space. Both the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site, and the city of New York committed to the space years ago to help jump start rebuilding efforts.
Since the attacks, disagreements among New York City, the state, the federal government, developers, insurers, victims' families and others have slowed constructio on the 16-acre site. Developer Larry Silverstein, who held the lease to the site when it was attacked in 2001, has played a key role in shaping the project's design, security and cost.
"The world is recognizing that we've moved from 12 years of controversy andconstruction to having a real place that is coming back to life as a part of New York City," said Janno Lieber, who oversees planning, design and rebuilding for Silverstein Properties.
The developer was not troubled that the 2.3 million-square-foot building is only half leased.
In 2006, Silverstein opened 7 World Trade Center, just north of Ground Zero, and the company was the only tenant in the building. But by 2011, it was fully leased with such tenants as Moody's Corp and Mansueto Ventures, which publishes Fast Company and Inc. magazines.
"We learned at 7 World Trade Center that when you build state-of-the-art, green, high-tech office buildings, they lease quickly," McQuillan said.
Commercial real estate in downtown Manhattan rents for about $47 per square foot, about 35 percent less than rents in midtown Manhattan, according to commercial real state services firm CBRE Group.
The skyscraper cost about $2 billion to build, including land lease costs, and was financed with $1.2 billion of tax-free Liberty Bonds and hard-won insurance proceeds.
