A planned performing arts center on the World Trade Center site, what seems to be the poor stepchild among all the massive redevelopment, is slated to be the last of the long-delayed structures to rise there. Projected completion is so distant—around 2017—that many question whether Lower Manhattan will ever get its promised prestigious venue.

Last week, at a private meeting convened by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, officials of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation said they were studying the feasibility of putting the center across the street from the site, at 130 Liberty Street, where the remains of the former Deutsche Bank building now stand. The move, to the LMDC-owned property known as Site 5, could mean that the performing arts center gets built years sooner.

Currently, the temporary PATH station, at Vesey and Greenwich Streets, occupies a portion of the site where the performance center is meant to go. That station can’t be removed until the permanent Santiago Calatrava-designed transit complex is completed.

The LMDC offered no public comment on the study, which is yet to be completed. A source within the agency emphasized that it was too soon to say whether the idea is workable.

“We’re not saying that it’s better or worse than other options,” said the official. “We’re just saying that it’s worth looking at.”

Neither the mayor’s office nor the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the WTC site, would comment on the plan that is under study.

Silver said he is reserving judgment.

“It’s worth exploring without committing to it,” he said. “Let’s evaluate what the cost savings are, how much of the initial design can go in this site—things of that nature— and will the city and the governor support it.”

Suggesting one advantage, Silver said that the fundraising efforts of an arts center that is off-site might not have to compete with the memorial museum for donations. But off-site, he added, it also could be viewed as less of a “fitting memorial” of its own.

“I’m one of those who believes the community should weigh all of those factors and make the determination,” he said.


“My view is that the most important thing is to get the performing arts center built sooner rather than later,” said Michael Connolly, one of several Community Board 1 members who attended the meeting in Silver’s office. Connolly added that he wants to see a “first-class” stand-alone building, and it is his impression that Site 5 could accommodate the same building that is contemplated for the World Trade Center site. Among possible advantages, he said, is the preexisting foundation of the Deutsche Bank building that would save construction time and money compared to the complexities of building on the Trade Center site.


JPMorgan Chase was to build a tower on Site 5, but those plans changed after the company merged with Bear Stearns and moved uptown.

The building, to be designed by Frank Gehry, would house a 1,000-seat theater, a smaller auditorium or recital hall, and extensive rehearsal and set storage space and offices. It is planned as a home for the Joyce Theater.

Last year LMDC president Avi Schick floated the idea of a performing arts center as part of the Fulton Street Transit Center. That idea was abandoned. So to was a plan to put the Signature Theater, formerly to be housed the performing arts center, in Borough of Manhattan Community College’s Fiterman Hall when it is rebuilt.

For those who have been troubled by the back-burner status of the performing arts center, the mere fact that it is being discussed is good news.

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council vice president Diego Segalini, who attended the meeting, said he is pleased to know that the center is still part of the “overall vision” for the site.

“If moving the Performing Arts Center from Site 1B to Site 5 disentangles it from the rest of the 16 acre site,” Segalini said in a written statement to the Trib, “then all the better.”