When the planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, the World Trade Center name was catapulted into global notoriety. At the time, the South Central Pennsylvania International Network was waiting on application approval for its new brand: the World Trade Center Harrisburg. After the attacks, Executive Director Tina Weyant said plans to partner with a developer to build an office tower adorned with the brand sputtered. “One guy actually told me, he was like, 'What do you expect me to do, build another target?'” Weyant said. The lack of interest forced Weyant’s group to place hopes for new office space on the back burner for 14 years. The group eventually partnered with developer John Moran Jr. to rebrand 1000 North Cameron St. as the World Trade Center Harrisburg, with the association moving into a 3K SF office in December 2016. Licensed to economic development organizations around the world, there had always been significant business value attached to being a designated World Trade Center. But in the years after the deadliest attacks on U.S. soil happened at a World Trade Center, the name was saddled with grief and fear. Two decades later, the weight of those events has lifted and the luster of being a World Trade Center has returned. Licensed World Trade Centers have multiplied in the U.S. and abroad, once again anchoring signature real estate projects designed to showcase a region’s economic development clout. “It's more than just [a] brand. It's like this whole concept of globally working together and moving forward,” Weyant said. 
Buildings that have adopted the World Trade Center brand in their respective cities have historically been visible, high-value office assets even prior to a World Trade Center moving in, while others have been purpose-built and designed to impress.A 2012 report from Chicago-based Johnson Consulting, commissioned by the  Read the full story here. | 
