22 Years After 9/11, Organization Formed To Rebuild Lower Manhattan Set To Fade Away
More than 20 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks shook New York City to its core, the state-run agency tasked with rebuilding Lower Manhattan in its aftermath could soon cease to exist.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corp., set up as a partnership between city and state governments to hand out federal funding to the area around the World Trade Center, is starting to wind down operations. It will be absorbed by the state’s Empire State Development agency by March, The Real Deal reported.
The announcement follows an agreement reached in July to build 1,200 units of housing at 5 World Trade Center, one-third of which will be reserved as income-restricted housing. Approximately 80 units in total will also be reserved for 9/11 survivors and their families.
Justin Henry, deputy communications director for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office, told Bisnow in a statement Monday that the plan for 5 WTC “represents Governor Hochul's commitment to ensure LMDC completes the original vision of what Ground Zero should become: an active 24/7 neighborhood reconnected with downtown, a thriving live, work and play destination in the heart of Lower Manhattan."
The LMDC will continue to support several projects prior to the wind-down and the ESD’s absorption, including Pier 42 revitalization efforts and the Perelman Performing Arts Center, the long-delayed cultural institution that CBS reported is slated to open later this month.
The LMDC was launched two months after the 9/11 attacks by then-Gov. George Pataki and then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Officials advocated for the LMDC to shutter since as early as 2006, when then-Chair Kevin Rampe told The New York Times that the agency was close to “the end of the mission.”
Other advocates for the LMDC’s closure include then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the 2008 campaign trail, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2011 and the New York Post, which called the agency a “zombie” in 2015, per TRD.
The LMDC held on for years as the agency and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey sparred over whether to allow for mixed-use development or strictly office on the site where the twin towers once stood. The fighting eventually resulted in a request for proposals from developers that delivered residential plans.
“This entity was set up at a time of extraordinary crisis and distress,” Alicia Glen, former deputy mayor under Bill de Blasio and previous LMDC board member, told TRD. “I think that LMDC played an incredibly important role in maintaining continuity and just trying to be focused on the site being rebuilt.”
The World Trade Center redevelopment has been a long process. Silverstein Properties Chairman Larry Silverstein famously signed a ground lease for the entire site just months before the attacks and shortly afterward declared his intention to rebuild.
The first new building to be built on the site was 7 World Trade Center, where Silverstein moved his company's offices after it opened in 2006. One World Trade Center, managed by The Durst Organization, opened in 2014 as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at 1,776 feet, a title it still holds.
That same year, Silverstein opened its second new building at the site, 4 World Trade Center, followed four years later by 3 World Trade. All of the office buildings are more than 90% leased.
Still, Silverstein's planned 2 World Trade Center, the final piece of the office puzzle on the site, is on hold while the developer continues its search for an anchor tenant, a quest that is more than 7 years old at this point.
