Here’s the first look at a scaled-down World Trade Center — with retail shops replacing two of the site’s towers, under a new design the Port Authority will present at a summit today with Mayor Bloomberg and the governors of New York and New Jersey.
OPINION: THE GROUND ZERO SUMMIT
The gleaming glass and steel retail podiums would rise six stories above street level at World Trade Center sites where Larry Silverstein wants to build two enormous office towers, one of which would soar nearly as high as the Empire State Building.
Fearful that Silverstein won’t be able to finance construction of the towers during a recession, PA officials are pushing for a temporary plan to create retail podiums between Church and Greenwich streets to fill the space and restore the streetscape.
Renderings of the proposal have been quietly circulating among some downtown officials and were obtained by The Post yesterday.
The retail podiums would anchor as much as 600,000 square feet of shopping space that would extend below street level into every WTC building and through the massive Calatrava transit hub.
By building podiums in place of towers, PA officials expect to increase the amount of retail space from the currently planned 500,000 square feet — roughly what existed in the World Trade Center before 9/11.
Silverstein has opposed building two podiums, and has asked the PA to act as a backstop in his bid to finance two of his three WTC towers. He recently offered to delay construction of his third tower.
PA officials have not budged, and have agreed to back him on only one tower, WTC 4, at the corner of Liberty and Greenwich streets.
The Ground Zero developer has insisted that by the time he completes two towers between 2013 and 2015, the economy will have turned around and the demand for high-end office space will have returned.
In a bid to end the stalemate, Bloomberg will be convening a meeting at Gracie Mansion today with Gov. Paterson, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, Port Authority officials, Silverstein and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.