NEW YORK CITY-With more than 60,000 people now living and working in Lower Manhattan, the role of Battery Park City’s largest structure – the World Financial Center – is evolving to meet the needs of the diversifying Downtown market. During the “Battery Park City: Coming of Age” conference hosted by the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute at Baruch College on Thursday afternoon, building owners, managers, architects and designers—including WFC landlord Brookfield Office Properties—discussed how private development has helped transform the community post-9/11.
“We see a number of very important, compelling reasons that today is a good time to plan for the future,” said Dennis Friedrich, president and global chief investment officer at Brookfield, who discussed the company’s $250 million retail redevelopment plan for the eight million-square-foot, four-building site.
The new retail plan for the WFC will include 200,000 square feet of retail and public space, including upscale fashion tenants, a European-style marketplace and new waterfront dining. The project—to be completed in 2013—will also realign the WFC back to the street grid, providing connections to the state-of-the-art Calatrava-designed World Trade Center Transportation Hub through an underground passageway.
“Our thought process and rationale is that we see great opportunities in the common areas of the financial center to really bring together a thriving residential population, not just in Battery Park City, but also the connectivity we now have in the northern neighborhoods of TriBeCa, Chelsea and up to Wall Street,” he said.
The property’s crowing jewel will be a new glass pavilion at West Street, where up to three anchor retail spaces will be created directly across from the 9/11 Memorial, which will be designed by Pelli Clark Pelli, the original designer of the site’s iconic Winter Green. On the inside of the building, the historic staircase overlooking the World Trade Center will remain, while 90,000 square feet of in-line international fashion retailers and up-and-coming New York bands will be added to the existing Winter Green.
On the dining side, six restaurants are planned for a total of 40,000 square feet, including a white-table-cloth restaurant, a steak house and four New York centric eateries, with price points across the board. The 25,000-square-foot marketplace will feature international fare, as well as farm-to-table style cuisine. A 30,000-square-foot, 600-seat dining terrace overlooking the Hudson River and New York Harbor is also planned.
Friedrich says some of the improvements are being made due to the events of 9/11, but others are being done to recognize that the residential communities and office communities have "evolving" needs. "World Financial Center is really, to some extent, a real town center for Battery Park City, and Battery Park City needs to address those going forward," he said.
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