Yes, it would be just fine for those developers because they wouldn't have the competition of brand new Class A office space. There are surely complaints about the design of the Freedom Tower, many of which have been catalogued in my prior installments, but people will come back to work at the site.
And if we're talking about the transit hubs and their proximity to the site, one should keep in mind that there hasn't been any transit hub located downtown in the 100+ years of the subway's existence. The rebuilding downtown incorporated a transit hub because of future needs. The WTC is only one part of Lower Manhattan.
But despite the sour tone that the Times has taken, they have to recognize the obvious:
In the past decade, an estimated 11,000 apartments have been built downtown in converted office buildings or new towers, according to the Alliance for Downtown New York. And 4,287 additional units are on the way, most of them scheduled for next year.(emphasis added)
The downtown commercial market is improving slowly, but the vacancy rate still hovers at 15 percent, with millions of square feet sitting empty. And the overwhelming majority of the new leases signed downtown this year were for tenants seeking less than 10,000 square feet, not the big companies that fill tall towers.
With the Midtown commercial real estate market tightening up, state officials and real estate executives are hoping that companies will be drawn to Lower Manhattan, where rents are 33 percent cheaper than uptown, even before applying various tax breaks and other incentives.
In a related note, the $2.9 billion transportation bond act passed. A significant portion of that money will go to build critical infrastructure around New York City.
Steve Cuozzo slams Bloomberg's seemingly aloofness on rebuilding Lower Manhattan and suggests that he take action to improve the liveability. I'm not so sure that I want Bloomberg butting in even more than he did during the last two weeks of the election. Sure, that was pandering to voters, but his comments undermine the work already done on designing the WTC complex (and construction is already underway on the transporation portion).
UPDATE:
The 9/11 memorial will be open 24/7 said one of the landscape architects in a discussion forum:
The main landscaper of the memorial plaza at the World Trade Center site said yesterday in an online chat that the plaza will be open at all hours and will feature white oaks and sweetgum -- as well as views of the slurry wall.
Visitors, however, will likely have to leave their dogs behind, landscape architect Peter Walker added.
The main features of the Memorial Plaza, designed by Michael Arad, are two large recessed pools. Walker said the plan is to allow the fountain water to flow at all times except during freezing temperatures.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower, IFC, International Freedom Center.
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