The Freedom Tower

A new deal that would bring a world class shopping expert back to develop Ground Zero properties may be approved as early as tomorrow.
The New York Times says the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, owners of the 16-acre Ground Zero property in lower Manhattan, is still talking to Westfield Group. The deal on the table is for the group to buy a 50 percent stake in developing nearly 500,000 square feet of retail space at Ground Zero. The Times says the PA wants Westfield to invest more than $600 million in creating the shopping areas.
“Stores would be located at street level and above in three planned office towers along Church Street, as well as in the two-story concourses linking the site with subway lines and the PATH commuter rail station,” the Times said.
“The original shopping space at the World Trade Center was a highly successful underground mall, in no small way because of the 150,000 commuters and tourists streaming past the storefronts and restaurants every day on their way to the towers.
But critics and many downtown residents complained that the old configuration robbed the neighborhood of street life, leaving it a ghost town after sundown and on the weekends. After the complex was destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, planners, neighborhood groups and eventually the Port Authority insisted that the new stores would be built at street level and extend up as high as the fourth floor, as well as underground.”