Quote:
Originally Posted by chris08876
I wish they would build on-spec and work on getting numerous smaller tenants over time just to get this rising versus a large commitment. Longer this sits dormant, harder it will get. Midtown East, Hudson Yards and eventually the Penn District are the future.
|
This exactly. The reasoning of the developers of this site that a more opportune time for construction might lie in the future, has only resulted in the timeline for this tower being pushed ever more into the future. They had this same excuse from 2016-2020. The comparatively better economy back then wasn't enough for them, they insisted on having an anchor tenant before starting. They also decided to do another redesign in 2019/2020 after the BIG redesign in 2015. They waited so long that a pandemic, concurrent labor shortage and declining occupancy office rates delayed the project again.
It's pretty disappointing to see that no one that could help start construction seems to express an urgency in redeveloping the site where the tower would rise. Not Silverstein Properties (despite Silverstein himself now being older than 90). Not the Port Authority. Not companies. Not local or state leaders that control a lot of what goes on at the site. Meanwhile complaints from local residents keep saying to fill existing smaller office buildings first or are more focused on housing (as with the current situation for 5 WTC, where some people are insisting the tower be redesigned to accommodate 'affordable housing'). As much as people here want the tower to be built, a lot of people closer to the site (including those in charge of the construction itself, government representatives, office companies and residents in Lower Manhattan) don't seem to be very eager or interested in that happening.
On skyscrapercity forums, someone said that construction might only start in 2025 so that 2 WTC would be open in time for the 30th anniversary. That would simply be ridiculous, and yet it's not even certain that construction will have started by then (remember the consistent predictions in the mid 2010s that 2 WTC would be well under construction by 2020). Because of many trends (including the increasing practice of engaging in remote work and TAMI companies continually downsizing), it might not even be feasible for an office building to be constructed at the site in a few years, although for now (
as the same New York Post author has admitted), the rest of the towers on the WTC site are filling up relatively fast and have retained high occupancy throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Additionally as TKDV mentions on New York YIMBY forums, a tenant that agrees could demand a redesign (like FOX did which prompted the BIG redesign). And then what's to say that the tenant that demanded the redesign won't then pull out at the last minute like FOX did in 2016 and Deutsche Bank did in 2017?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zapatan
I guess, but who’s to say it won’t be another 10 or 20 years?
I’m not trying to be too pessimistic but rather just realistic. It’s hard to take any news articles regarding this project seriously anymore.
|
Agreed, every year leading up to and around the anniversary of 9/11 or so, there's some news about 2 WTC, only for nothing to come of it.
At least St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC) will be finishing up and both buildings will likely be completed and open sometime in 2023, along with Century 21 on Church Street reopening too. The PAC opening will hopefully result in more walkable space on the WTC site and even less of a feel of a construction site. The graffiti on the mechanical vents of the 2 WTC building stump (built to grade by 2012/2013 and with the decision to decorate these vents being made back in 2018) is getting old, yet that view is probably going to be present for at least a few more years.