Source: Enhanced WTC Security, Mostly Positive?

NEW YORK CITY-The New York City Police Department’s recent 36-page security proposal for the soon-to-be-rebuilt World Trade Center site, puts the area in a security zone, with limited access for vehicles and dozens of guard booths on street corners. Industry sources have mixed feelings on how the proposal–in which only specially screened taxis, limousines and cars would be allowed through “sally ports,” or barriers staffed by police officers—-will affect Downtown commercial real estate, however outcomes were mostly positive.

Elizabeth Berger, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York, tells GlobeSt.com that one of the challenges of the original World Trade Center, was that it was “an island in the middle of lower Manhattan, and one of the things about the new rebuilding plans was that it reconnects that super block.” So although “the WTC site is a sensitive site and it is important to have an eye toward the security of that site, there has to be a balance.”

She further notes that “in talking about the future of lower Manhattan, it is important to say that we want the vitality and excitement of lower Manhattan to extend to the rebuilt WTC site. With all the construction, closed streets and already intense security that we have right now, we still have lower vacancy rates, higher asking prices per sf, an explosion of the residential community, and new retail. What we want is for that to continue.”