The buildings were shuttered after two planesat least one of them hijackedcrashed into New York's twin-towered World Trade Center and destroyed both buildings. Additional terrorist attacks were reported in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

Fueling local concerns, at least one of the planes that flew into the World Trade Center was bound for Los Angeles. The Los Angeles International Airport was expected to remain closed at least until Tuesday afternoon, and perhaps until Wednesday.

The Downtown buildings that were closed Tuesday included the 2-million-sf Arco Plaza and the city's tallest building, Maguire Partners' Library Tower.

"We evacuated all four of our buildings, which represents about 20,000 employees, at about 8:15 this morning," says Maguire Partners spokeswoman Peggy Morretti. Company officials will decide late this afternoon when the buildings will re-open, she adds.

Nearly all government offices, including City Hall and the giant Ronald Reagan State Office Building, also were closed. Downtown streets were clogged with traffic, as thousands of workers arrived at their jobs in mid-morning just as thousands more were being sent home for the day.

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.

Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.