One World Trade Center, the unfinished skyscraper where the Twin Towers once stood, became the tallest building in New York City this afternoon.
Still under construction more than a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks, the building’s skeleton surpassed the Empire State Building’s 1,250-foot-high observation deck, reaching 1,271 feet with the addition of a few steel columns.
“The latest progress at the World Trade Center is a testament to New Yorkers’ strength and resolve, and to our belief in a city that is always reaching upward,” New York City Mayor Bloomberg said.
“This building has been a labor of love for many, and I congratulate the men and women who have worked together to solve the challenges presented by this incredibly complex project,” he added.
Gov. Cuomo added that the new tower represents “our commitment to rebuilding stronger than before.”
“One World Trade Center will be the hub of new economic growth in Lower Manhattan and for the entire metropolitan region, attracting major businesses from across the globe and providing a workplace for thousands of New Yorkers,” he said.
WTC managers say it’s hard to estimate how much revenue the tower could generate because it’s still not decided what amenities will be included in the final design — like gift shops and snack concessions.
But one thing is for sure: the WTC’s observation deck will certainly include much more than just the puny gift shop featured at the Empire State Building, Port Authority sources said.
“You’ve got to get people back to thinking of the trade center not as a site of an attack but as a center of commerce,” said one person who has been involved with the reconstruction of lower Manhattan.
“You’ve got to think about it as a real-estate thing. And real estate is transactional — it’s about competition and retail and tourists.”
The WTC will soon hire an outside firm to design, operate and market its observation deck, which will open with the rest of the structure by early 2015.
Last week, the PA’s board approved a resolution to get back into the antenna business — something that was lost along with nearly 3,000 lives when the Twin Towers fell on 9/11.
The two moves are no coincidence — instead, they should be read as a new aggressiveness on the part of the WTC, sources told The Post.
The PA is even taunting the owners of the Empire State Building.
Tonight, the agency will light the new tower in a blue-and-white color scheme, in celebration of surpassing the Empire State Building’s 1,250 feet.
Those colors, sources said, are supposed to mock the Empire State Building’s controversial 2010 decision not to light the building in honor of the 100th anniversary of Mother Teresa’s birth.
The owners of the 82-year-old Empire State Building declined to comment on their rivals’ plans.
“The world’s most famous office building, the ancestor of all super-tall towers, welcomes our newer, taller cousin to the skyline,” the Empire State operators said. “We’ve watched you grow, and now we salute you.”
With NewsCore