Visions of Future Retail on WTC Site

 by Barry Owens


Gleaming office towers may rise again on the World Trade Center site, the top of the Freedom Tower might twinkle
from the symbolic height of 1,776 feet, and a memorial, museum and cultural center could draw visitors by the millions.

The Port Authority of NY and NJ plans to make room for

But for many Downtown residents and business groups, the structures most urgently needed at the site to revitalize the neighborhood in a tangible way is the more humble storefront.

"We want retail-great retail," said Bill Love, a member of Community Board 1's World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee. "And lots of retail."

During a presentation to the committee last month, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey presented plans for up to 130,000 square feet of retail on the lower levels of the PATH station. An additional 375,000 square feet of retail space may be included on five levels in two planned towers on Church Street, but deals would first have to be worked out with Larry Silverstein, the site's leaseholder. A plan to cover a portion of Cortlandt Street with a glass canopy to create additional street-level access to retail space will need the city's approval.

"Below ground concerns me," said Julie Menin, the community board's chairwoman, who urged the authority to create as much above-ground retail space as possible-and as soon as possible.

The absence of the World Trade Center's shopping arcade and other stores on the site has left more than a symbolic void in the neighborhood. Community board member Jeff Galloway noted that under the current rebuilding schedule, his children will be in high school, college or possibly married before a single shop at the site reopens.

"Is there anyway we can speed this up?" he asked.

The authority plans for retail to open in 2010, coinciding with the completion of the new PATH station. James Connors, director of the site's redevelopment for the authority, said that probably no stores will be open, even temporarily, before the station is complete.

"We take a pretty dim view of temporary retail," he said. "We really don't think it works."
A glass galleria would cover Cortlandt Street between the retail space built into buildings at Liberty and Dey Streets. Rendering: Port Authority of NY and NJ
No tenants have been named for the transportation hub or the planned complex on Church Street, but mall operator Westfield America, the former owner of the lease for retail space at the World Trade Center, will have right of first offer on the future space, Connors said.
Rendering of retail space planned for PATH station concourse. Rendering: Port Authority of NY and NJ

Menin requested that the board be consulted during the development process and given input about the types of retail to be included.

"We are a very important constituent group and lately we have been silenced," she said. "We'd like to take a consulting role in this."

On this day, with only digitally-drawn images of shoppers inserted into renderings of well-lit concourse spaces, there was little to quibble over.

"I haven't seen, or heard any conversation related to trees or greenery," said board member Pearl Scher. "And where are the benches? That would be nice."