<\/p>\n
Lower Manhattan workers crowd restaurants such as Crown Shy and Manhatta for dinner, and\u00a0it\u2019s nearly impossible to get a reservation at the Dead Rabbit cocktail bar.<\/p>\n
The Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center hosts elite shows, including the first production of the Tony-winning musical Cats: The Jellicle Ball. And on the weekends, the Battery is filled with families and tourists.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a far cry from the downtown that existed even before the 11 September 2001, terrorist attacks that destroyed the Twin Towers and killed almost 3 000 people. But in the quarter-century since the tragedy, Lower Manhattan hasn\u2019t simply recovered: It has evolved from a business district that largely emptied out after work into a hub for housing, culture and nightlife, while adding a new generation of office towers.<\/p>\n
Read: More old Wall Street offices slated for apartment conversion<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you walk in the streets and you see young kids on their scooters, and dogs being walked, you know that you\u2019ve been a success,\u201d said Bill Rudin, co-executive chairman of real estate company Rudin, whose family has owned property downtown for decades and helped push\u00a0an early effort to diversify the area before 9\/11.<\/p>\n
Lower Manhattan has added almost 25 000 residential units since 9\/11, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a report this week, and its population has more than doubled.<\/p>\n
Its workforce has diversified as well: Financial services, which accounted for almost half of downtown\u2019s occupied space as recently as 2009, now represents 25%, according to CBRE Group Inc. Companies such as Spotify Technology SA, Uber Technologies Inc and Scale AI occupy skyscrapers built after the attacks.<\/p>\n
The Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center attracts both locals and tourists. Image: Krisanne Johnson\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n
The transformation has been rocky and at times thrown into doubt \u2013 interrupted by the 2008 financial crisis, Superstorm Sandy\u2019s floodwaters and the mass emptying of offices during the Covid-19 pandemic, which threatened the very model of people commuting to a dense business district every day. The shiny new towers of Hudson Yards and Midtown lured many companies seeking offices.<\/p>\n
But office leasing is now growing at the fastest pace since before the pandemic. Former banking towers like 55 Broad Street and 25 Water Street were successfully converted to homes.<\/p>\n
Residents can snag groceries from places ranging from Eataly to Target, or dine at outposts of New York institutions Sant Ambroeus and P.J. Clarke\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Last year, 340 condos sold in the financial district at a median price of $1.3 million, according to real estate data firm StreetMatrix. In 2000, there were just 32 condo deals, with a median price of $485,000. The median rent, meanwhile, almost doubled to $5 050.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cDowntown continues to be in transition and continues to be improving,\u201d said Mary Ann Tighe, CBRE\u2019s chief executive officer for the tri-state region, who handled much of the office leasing at the World Trade Center site. She recalled that even before 9\/11, downtown was a market mainly for financial companies, the government and the law firms that supported them, with virtually no other amenities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a girlfriend who lived downtown who would have to pack up her dry cleaning and carry it to Midtown to get it done,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were very few basic services downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former office tower 55 Broad St. has been converted into a residential building. Image: Stephanie Keith\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n
For Christina Roccos, an interior designer who moved to the Financial District 18 years ago, the landscape has completely changed. When she arrived, there were relatively few residential buildings, and families with children tended to find one another through the handful of schools in the area.<\/p>\n
The mother of three started a WhatsApp group years ago with preschool parents to help form a sense of community; one group now has 1,000 members in it. She walks her dogs in the morning by Liberty Street\u2019s Fosun Plaza and enjoys the public art, buys prosciutto and mortadella from Eataly and picks up flowers and cleaning products at Jubilee Marketplace on John Street.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI don\u2019t need to leave the neighborhood,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Longtime plan<\/p>\n
The roots of Lower Manhattan\u2019s transformation began well before 2001. In 1990, Rudin thought the economics of his firm\u2019s 55 Broad St. were so bad\u00a0he wanted to mothball the building. Drexel Burnham Lambert, the investment bank that had occupied about 75% of the tower, had gone bankrupt.<\/p>\n
The stock market crash of 1987 and subsequent downturn\u00a0had taken a hard toll; about a third of the area\u2019s 100 million square feet of commercial space downtown was vacant.<\/p>\n
By 1995, Rudin and other\u00a0business leaders had created the Downtown Alliance, one of the city\u2019s largest business improvement districts, and 55 Broad St. was revamped to focus on tech tenants.<\/p>\n
That change was part of a roadmap for the area written by Carl Weisbrod, who had taken part in the revitalisation of 42nd Street. He aimed to expand on downtown\u2019s transportation network and infrastructure to create a vibrant neighborhood less dependent on the financial industry, and conversions were a key part of the vision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we started to do in the years preceding 9\/11 was recognize that that era of a one-dimensional neighborhood really was no longer appropriate,\u201d Weisbrod said. \u201cIncreasingly, cities and people demanded multiuse neighbourhoods, and that\u2019s what we started.\u201d<\/p>\n
The terror attacks turned that effort into something far more urgent, with immense financial, logistical and emotional complexity.<\/p>\n
Flowers next to a reflecting pool on the footprint of a tower at the 9\/11 Memorial & Museum in New York. Image: Michael Nagle\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n
Developer Larry Silverstein, who signed a 99-year lease for the World Trade Center complex just weeks before the attacks, became enmeshed in years of legal battles with insurers. Reconstructing the site itself involved building above active subway and PATH transit lines. At the same time, officials had to balance the desire to revive a critical piece of the city with the need to pay tribute to victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt needed to be sacred ground, but also part of a living city \u2013 a place that honored what was lost while helping bring new life back to Lower Manhattan,\u201d said Scott Rechler, who leads real estate company RXR and helped oversee the redevelopment of the World Trade Center as a former vice chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.<\/p>\n
There was also the question of safety. In the immediate aftermath, the attacks left downtown covered in debris and potentially harmful dust, with records released just this week showing that officials were weighing potential liabilities over exposure to toxic particles as people returned to the area.<\/p>\n
The World Trade Center had also been targeted by terrorists twice in less than a decade, leaving employers to confront fears about moving workers back to the site.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went on hundreds of tours, if not more, walking through with companies,\u201d said CBRE\u2019s Tighe. \u201cAnd what I heard from executive after executive is, \u2018You know, my wife would not feel safe if I was in this office building.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Patrons inside O\u2019Hara\u2019s Pub near the World Trade Center site, on 9 September. Image: Michael Nagle\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n
A photo of the O\u2019Hara\u2019s building after the 9\/11 attacks hangs at the bar. Image: Michael Nagle\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n
Michael Bloomberg, elected New York City mayor two months after the attacks, championed rebuilding the area as \u201ca live-and-work-and-visit community for the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dan Doctoroff, his deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding, helped lead the city\u2019s efforts, with plans for more housing, schools and parks. (Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, and is chairman of the 9\/11 Memorial & Museum and the Perelman Performing Arts Center.)<\/p>\n
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Community groups also came together to aid in the revival. Julie Menin, who was set to host a booth at a restaurant show on the plaza of the World Trade Center on 12 September 2001, started Wall Street Rising to work toward downtown\u2019s recovery, aiding small businesses and promoting cultural institutions. She is now speaker of the New York City Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople said, \u2018No one is going to want to work in Lower Manhattan again,\u2019 and we proved them wrong,\u201d Menin said.\u00a0\u201cWhen you see the success of the Lower Manhattan community and its ability to rebuild, it\u2019s incredible to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
By 2024, the population of Lower Manhattan \u2013 encompassing Tribeca and the Financial District \u2013 reached 70,761, up from just over 32 440 in 2000, according to the state comptroller report. That accounted for 4.3% of all Manhattan residents, compared with 2.1% before the attacks.<\/p>\n
Schools, restaurants<\/p>\n
Andrea Scotto, a 17-year Financial District resident, has watched how it has changed from a \u201cdesolate\u201d area after 6 p.m.\u00a0and how it recovered after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.<\/p>\n
She recalls having no electricity for a week and having to walk to work in Midtown and shower at a friend\u2019s home after the storm. Now, she appreciates downtown\u2019s \u201cneighbourhoody\u201d vibes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good for families,\u201d Scotto said this week while watching her child playing in the sprinkler at the Imagination Playground. \u201cThere\u2019s playgrounds, good schools, open spaces, the Seaport is right there. There are still a lot of good places to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her husband owns bars in the area and they\u2019ve enjoyed the resurgence, but Scotto also sees how eateries are getting priced out of the neighborhood, with families unable to afford \u201c$100 meals per person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Restaurants such as Harry\u2019s, which mostly catered\u00a0to a Wall Street crowd in the 1970s and \u201980s, now sees its long bar and deal-ready tables filled with a diversified, more youthful clientele.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not Wall Street but it still is,\u201d said Peter Poulakakos, son of Harry. \u201cThe energy is fun. A lot of the youth are Wall Street professionals, or they\u2019re in AI, architecture, design.\u201d<\/p>\n
The intersection of Church Street and Liberty Street in the Financial District. Image: Krisanne Johnson\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n
The Poulakakos entrepreneurial spirit has helped expand the Harry\u2019s empire to include popular happy hour spot Ulysses on Stone Street and the Dead Rabbit on Water Street.<\/p>\n
Investments across the Seaport, Battery Park City, Brookfield Place and the Westfield World Trade Center mall have added to the vibrancy of the area, with \u201ca lot of smart people paying attention downtown,\u201d Poulakakos said.<\/p>\n
Eli Doroshow, 26, has lived in the area for two years and said people his age don\u2019t necessarily think the Financial District is as cool as other parts of the city, but he likes that it\u2019s not as hectic and that he\u2019s just steps from the Fulton Street subway stop.<\/p>\n
The Washington, D.C., native also has come to appreciate living so close to the World Trade Center site.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pits where the old buildings used to be, I find to be very moving,\u201d Doroshow said. \u201cI feel really grounded in New York there, even though I\u2019m not from here. I\u2019m not a New Yorker. I feel the weight of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The influx of residents has created demand for new services that would have been hard to imagine in the old financial district. About a decade ago, developer Billy Macklowe converted an office building at 156 William Street into a medical complex, complete with an imaging centre and practices affiliated with Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian. The hospital nearby made the investment attractive, he said, but so did downtown\u2019s changing demographics.<\/p>\n
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A one bedroom apartment at the SoMA residential tower, a former JPMorgan office building, at 25 Water Street. Image: Jose A. Alvarado Jr\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n
Macklowe is also betting on the residential boom, converting a 1920s office building near Tribeca\u2019s Broadway and Reade Street into roughly 170 high-end rental apartments, with coworking space, a screening room, sports simulator and a pet-washing station. He is undeterred by the growing pipeline of residences.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York has proven itself, time and again, there is almost an infinite depth for the demand for rental housing,\u201d Macklowe said. In the 1990s, \u201cpeople went to live downtown as an economic choice not as a lifestyle choice. Now that you see these buildings getting terrific rents, they\u2019re exciting and new and fun, it\u2019s a lifestyle choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
CBRE\u2019s Tighe sees a risk the pendulum could swing too far. With developers increasingly eyeing offices for residential conversion, and little new office supply expected beyond the upcoming 2 World Trade Center, Lower Manhattan could find itself short of quality workspace, she said.<\/p>\n
Read: The world remembers 9\/11 on 20th anniversary of attacks<\/p>\n
As with the rest of the city, many older buildings are struggling to find takers. Higher-end spaces like Brookfield Place, a collection of office towers on the western edge of Lower Manhattan, are bustling. The complex is more than 90% leased, said Ben Brown, co-president of Brookfield\u2019s real estate group.<\/p>\n
Brown sees the appeal of downtown offices continuing to grow as new apartment supply leads to more cultural amenities, while public investment to protect the area from future flooding is poised to improve waterfront parks. Numerous city subway lines run through downtown, a legacy of the neighborhood\u2019s history as a center of commerce that can\u2019t be recreated elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some point you\u2019ll start to see economics that make sense for new construction,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re pretty close to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Construction at 2 World Trade Center, future home of AmEx\u2019s new headquarters. Image: Krisanne Johnson\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n
For all the change, downtown has remained a financial-industry stronghold, from Citigroup Inc. moving its headquarters from Midtown to Greenwich Street, 10 blocks north of the World Trade Center, to Goldman Sachs Group Inc staying downtown with a relocation to 200 West Street.<\/p>\n
Trading and investment firms have made it home, including Hudson River Trading, at 3 World Trade Center and Capstone, founded by Paul Britton, at 7 World Trade Center. Moody\u2019s Corp and law firm WilmerHale also are at that building.<\/p>\n
American Express Co decided earlier this year to move its headquarters to 2 World Trade Center, enabling Silverstein Properties to start construction on the final major office tower planned at the site of the attacks.<\/p>\n
Read: Amex to pay $230m over misleading sales practices<\/p>\n
Rudin, who remembers calling former AmEx CEO Ken Chenault after 9\/11 to urge him to keep the company downtown, said the new headquarters is \u201cicing on the cake\u201d for the area.<\/p>\n
Rudin pointed to the model of office conversions being replicated around the world, new amenities and draws such as Mercer Labs and the Balloon Museum as signs of the constant evolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all builds on each other, step by step,\u201d he said. \u201cUnfortunately it takes 25 years and a lot of work to get the recognition that it deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n
#Manhattans #25year #reinvention #creates #neighbourhood #Wall #Street<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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