Lower Manhattan on Monday reached another milestone in its post-9/11 rebuild with the official opening of 3 World Trade Center.
“This is a moment of enormous pride for me and for everyone in the Silverstein organization and for the thousands of women and men who had a hand in creating this amazing building,” said Larry Silverstein, chairman of developer Silverstein Properties, who thanked his staff, the more than 4,000 union construction workers who built the skyscraper and its new tenants. “This is your building — and I welcome you to it.”
While 3 WTC was more than 10 years in the making, “we can’t come here without it being very bittersweet,” said Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. “It’s truly amazing to see what has happened since that day.”
By yearend, 3 WTC, which is 38 percent leased, will house more than 6,000 of Lower Manhattan’s newest employees from GroupM, its anchor tenant which leased nearly 700,000-square-feet across 14 floors, McKinsey and IEX.
“We’re proud to be the anchor tenant of 3 World Trade Center,” said GroupM’s Global CEO Kelly Clark. “Lower Manhattan is quickly becoming a world capital for advertising, media, technology and information. We’re excited about our inspiring new space and everything this neighborhood has to offer.”
City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who moved to Lower Manhattan after 9/11, said the opening of 3 WTC “celebrates the resurgence of New York — many said Lower Manhattan could never be rebuilt, but Silverstein Properties made clear we don’t break.”
Two facets of rebuilding of the WTC site remain, with the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center adjacent to 7 WTC currently under construction and building 2 WTC. Silverstein told Metro the arts center is expected to be complete by 2021 and he expects 2 WTC to land an anchor tenant next year. Its construction, he said, should take about four-and-a-half years.
9 fast facts about 3 World Trade Center
• 3 WTC is located at 175 Greenwich St., on the site of the former Marriott World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks
• Construction began in 2008, but halted during the housing crisis and restarted in 2010
• It was built by more than 4K union construction workers working millions of hours
• Construction included 10K glass panels, 27K tons of steel, 145K cubic yards of concrete, 44 elevators and five service elevators
• The 80-story building is 1,079-feet tall, making it the fifth-tallest building in New York City
• It has three outdoor terraces: on the 17th, 60th and 76th floors
• Features a total of 2.5 million square feet of office space and more than 216K feet of retail space across five levels
• Like its predecessors 4 WTC and 7 WTC, it is LEED-certified Gold
• It is 38 percent leased, with GroupM its anchor tenant with nearly 700K square feet across 14 floors
