NEW YORK CITY-As 4 World Trade Center readies to open in mere weeks, members and guests of the Young Men's/Young Women's Real Estate Association of New York were provided with a vision for the building—and some of WTC's other towers—during a luncheon meeting on Tuesday.

With 34,000 square foot floor plates on the top 15 floors, a terrace on the 54^th floor (which likely will be reserved for tenant use), ample retail and close proximity to mass transit hubs, 4 World Trade will offer 72 floors and become the first office tower to be completed on the original World Trade Center site.

“We're at a lynchpin moment for the world's recognition of what's happening downtown,” said Janno Lieber, president, World Trade Center Properties. Change already taking place in Lower Manhattan, which will multiply with the opening of the World Trade complex, is due also to changing demographics and the planned building of two major transportation stations.

Companies have come into the area, and to Silverstein Properties' World Trade Center, “because the white-collar, highly educated workforce is all convenient to Lower Manhattan,” said Lieber, who pointed to Brooklyn and parts of New Jersey that are close to Downtown. “That's a big part of the city's future. It's what brought Conde Nast to One World Trade,” he noted.

He noted that 7 World Trade Center, which is already open and fully leased, has “lots of technical companies” and also has media firms, while being light on finance sector tenants. “It's characterized by the new creative that have become central to Downtown.”

There are no tenants lined up yet for 2 World Trade Center, and “Silverstein Properties will probably wait for a tenant to show up for 2 WTC before working to get financing,” Lieber noted. Plans for the building include a 67 foot high lobby. “It's an extraordinary space,” he said. 3 World Trade Center will open in 2016, with both buildings offering extensive retail offerings. The latter will include a terrace. Owned and managed by Westfield, the offerings will be upscale.“They will have more of a Fifth Avenue feel than the Strawberry dominated feeling of the former World Trade Center,” said Lieber, referring to the discount women's clothing store. European style, pedestrian streets will run through the complex, he notes.

Between the two buildings will sit the World Trade Center transportation hub, designed by architect Santiago Calatrava. Slated to be lined by retail on two levels, said Lieber, “it will be akin to having an airport space for mass transit users. Between that and the Fulton Transit Center now under construction, “almost every subway that comes into Manhattan will stop within a block of the towers,” he said. In all, 11 subway lines will be accessible from the stations.

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