Undeveloped land parcel reserved for future 5 WTC
Ten years after authorities finish deconstructing the 9/11-damaged Deutsche Bank Building, the southern part of its footprint remains undeveloped in 2021, as plans for the construction of a future Five World Trade Center tower await approval from several governmental agencies. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation retains ownership of the land parcel known as site 5, which is bounded by Washington, Albany and Greenwich streets.
After the National September 11 Memorial plaza opens to the public in September 2011, LMDC allows the southern portion of site 5 to be used as a waiting area for ticketed visitors to the plaza, which is surrounded by a fence. The site 5 waiting area is vacated on May 15, 2014, when a dedication ceremony is held for the National September 11 Museum and the Memorial plaza’s fence is removed, giving visitors free access to the plaza for the first time.
LMDC decides to develop the vacated southern portion of site 5 into a temporary park as part of a project with Downtown Alliance, a nonprofit group that advocates for Lower Manhattan businesses. The park opens to the public on September 2, 2014. Named Albany Street Plaza, it features benches, trees and a colorful mural on a wall separating it from a police command post.
LMDC allows the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to builds trailers on the northern portion of site 5 in 2014. The trailers contain office space for the Port Authority Police’s World Trade Center Command, which moves into the temporary facility on April 24 of that year.
In a major step toward realizing the vision of a 5 WTC tower, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, LMDC and the Port Authority issue a request for proposals on June 26, 2019, seeking plans from developers to either lease or purchase the site for the construction of a commercial or mixed-use building.
LMDC and the Port Authority decide on February 11, 2021, to enter into exclusive negotiations with a consortium of developers that proposes to lease the site and build a largely residential tower. The 99-year lease would require the developers to pay rent directly to the Port Authority.
The consortium is led by U.S. firm Silverstein Properties and Canadian-owned firm Brookfield Properties and includes two smaller New York-based firms, Omni New York and Dabar Development Partners.
The Port Authority tells VOA that negotiations with the consortium on finalizing the lease for a future 5 WTC continue through August, with no word on when they are likely to conclude.
New Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church & National Shrine
Almost 20 years after the original church is destroyed on 9/11, construction of a new Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine nears completion at a nearby site in August 2021. It is designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, whom the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America first commissioned to draw up plans for the new building in 2012.
Calatrava’s design, released in 2013, envisions a domed white marble building surrounded by four pillars, modeled on Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia and Church of the Holy Savior in Chora, two iconic former Greek Orthodox churches later converted into mosques by Turkish authorities in 2020. Located at 130 Liberty Street on the eastern side of the World Trade Center’s new Liberty Park, construction of the estimated $20 million project begins with a ground-breaking ceremony on October 18, 2014 and reaches a “topping out” stage with a temporary cross placed on the building’s skeletal dome on November 29, 2016.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which agreed to let the archdiocese rebuild the church at 130 Liberty Street as part of a 2011 land swap agreement, signs another deal on August 21, 2017, to lease the site to the archdiocese for 198 years. The new agreement sets the rent for the church-shrine at a nominal $1 per year and gives the archdiocese the option to buy the site at any time during the lease, also for a nominal fee. The archdiocese agrees to let the Port Authority maintain ownership of the site so that the governmental agency retains responsibility for securing permits and regulatory approvals during the construction process.
But building work stops in December 2017 when Swedish construction company Skanska says the archdiocese is not paying it. The archdiocese reveals months earlier that it is in a severe financial deficit that has been building for years and hires PricewaterhouseCoopers in April 2018 to investigate the church-shrine project’s finances and major cost overruns.
The investigators conclude in October 2018 that there is no evidence of fraud or improper usage of funds by archdiocese members. The archdiocese also accepts the investigators’ call for the creation of a new independent entity, “Friends of Saint Nicholas”, to raise funds to complete the stalled project.
The Friends of Saint Nicholas group raises millions of additional dollars from private donations, enabling construction to resume on August 3, 2020. Total raised funds reach $95 million in June 2021, almost five times the original projected cost of the rebuilding.
In a statement to VOA, the archdiocese says the church-shrine’s exterior is expected to be completed by the evening of September 10, 2021, when it will be illuminated from the inside for the first time.
The archdiocese says that while interior work continues into 2022, an opening of the doors ceremony called a thyranoixia will be held on November 2, 2021, to coincide with a New York visit of Turkey-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople.
