Conde Nast’s lease to anchor One World Trade Center, signed in 2011, affirmed that Downtown was at last brushing off the emotional carnage of 9/11 that lingered long after the physical rubble was removed.

American Express’ announced decision to move to Two World Trade Center is equally momentous. It marked a psychological coup for Downtown, which enjoyed its strongest leasing performance in 2025 since before the pandemic and even bested mighty Midtown. Larry Silverstein will build the tower for Amex, which assumed his lease from the PA and will own and occupy it.

The project to be finished in 2031 gives Downtown its own supertall to rival the ones uptown, more than 1,200 feet high and wearing the imprimatur of great architect Norman Foster. “It’s more than a morale boost, it’s an adrenaline shock,” exulted a downtown broker who didn’t want to be identified. “Everybody here was waiting for this for a long time.”

As long as the site remained empty, it suggested that New York had not yet fully recovered from the terrorists’ work. The corner of Church and Fulton streets remained the painful hole in architect Daniel Libeskind’s master site plan.

The complex’s unfinished state brought back miserable memories of the struggle to replace the original World Trade Center. Elected officials and bureaucrats, the Port Authority, leaseholder Silverstein and rival architects bitterly and publicly squabbled. Most of the media hated Silverstein and howled against reconstruction, especially the New York Times. It’s worth noting that the Times, which gave space to potholes after the snowstorm, has yet to publish a word about the Amex deal which is merely of epochal historical and economic importance.

Of course Silverstein mostly prevailed. He built towers three and four as well as Seven World Trade Center across the street — all fine works of architecture. He also got the “Freedom Tower” off the ground before handing it off to developer Douglas Durst and the PA.

Only Tower Two got away from him. But Silverstein never gave up hope of building it in his lifetime. At age 94, his dream came true last week after what sources said was fully a three-year effort to get Amex, the PA, and Silverstein on the same page.

So let’s give credit to the prime movers. Stephen J. Squeri, Amex chairman and CEO since 2018, lent his muscle and negotiating prowess to one of the most complex land-use deals ever.

Cushman & Wakefield crucially advised Amex on development aspects and the ground-lease transaction to replace Silverstein. The team included Peyton Horn, Dale Schlather, Lou D’Avanzo and Kyle Ernest.
A CBRE team acted for Silverstein including Ken Meyerson, Evan Haskell, Caroline Merck, and Mary Ann Tighe. Appropriately, it was superbroker Tighe who clinched the Conde Nast deal 15 long years ago.

Fried Frank real estate chairman Jonathan Mechanic advised Amex on the legal front. It wasn’t his first time around the World Trade Center block — he worked with two other companies in earlier negotiations to anchor the project for Silverstein, although neither led to an agreement for Two World Trade.

But last week’s announcement made up for earlier disappointments.

“It was so exciting to be involved in this landmark transaction to complete the World Trade Center with a marquee building like the American Express headquarters designed by Norman Foster,” Mechanic said.
“I guess you could say the third time’s the charm,” he laughed.

A bombshell memo made public Thursday proves the city knew about the potential risks of Sept. 11, 2001 toxins weeks after the terror attacks — as officials told New Yorkers it was safe to return to Lower Manhattan, local pols said.

City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) unveiled the October 2001 memo, in which Big Apple lawyers admitted the city could face tens of thousands of lawsuits, including from people exposed to toxins after being advised they could return to the area around Ground Zero too soon.

“Health advisories caused individuals either to return to the area too soon (causing toxic exposure or emotional harm) or too late (causing economic hardship),” the city Law Department wrote in the memo to Bob Harding, then–Deputy Mayor for Economic Development under Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

“As we head into the 25th anniversary of 9/11, it’s really just shameful that the city gave this information and refused to disclose this information,” Menin, who ran a small business in the Financial District at the time of the attacks, said outside City Hall.

“This is just such a shocking situation,” she said, “that the city of New York has failed to take responsibility for telling the downtown community and first responders that the air was safe to breathe and that we should all be staying in Lower Manhattan.”

The document does not show that the city knew about the contaminants still filling the air when it advised New Yorkers it was safe to return to the area around the World Trade Center.

But it served as a “risk assessment” showing lawyers for the city admitting they could face up to 10,000 liability claims from residents over potential respiratory issues from contaminants including metals and asbestos, Menin said.

Nearly 50,000 first responders and others have been diagnosed with 9/11-related cancers.

The so-called “Harding memo” was first referenced in journalist Wayne Barrett’s 2006 book “The Grand Illusion,” though it was never clear how he obtained it.

It was finally found last week by the pro-bono attorneys for 9/11 victims at the University of Texas, which inherited Barrett’s estate.

Though the university told victims’ lawyers in December that they had no record of the memo, clerks agreed to comb through 300 boxes of Barrett’s documents – and found the missing memo in January.

“It is outrageous, and it is shocking, and it is heartbreaking that … the state of Texas is telling us more about what the city knew and when it knew it than the mayor’s offices have told us for the past 45 years,” said 9/11 victims’ attorney Andrew Carboy.

The memo release is part of a larger effort to make public records related to the Sept. 11. attacks.

The city previously moved to dismiss attempts to disclose its own toxin records, at one point claiming it had no documents – and only reversed course last year after a Department of Investigation probe spearheaded by Brewer found 68 boxes of 9/11 health-related documents, according to lawyers for some of the victims.

The council members and victims’ lawyers are now calling on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fund a $3 million project to probe and release the records.

“It’s time for the mayor to step up and do what he needs to do to get the right and the information out to people who really need it,” said Thomas Hart, who sits on the board of 9/11 Health Watch.

Menin and Brewer said newly-minted mayor’s office attorney Steve Banks “favorably indicated to both of us that he was committed to do that” at his confirmation hearing Wednesday.

Ex-Mayor Eric Adams once refused to release a stash of documents showing the alleged cover-up — unless the city was granted immunity from lawsuits.

“There’s much more that we need to know, and as we are seeing from this memo, as more documents from the 68 boxes will come out,” added Rep. Dan Goldman on the steps of City Hall.

“The idea that monetary and financial concerns would dictate the actions of the city of New York for 25 years is repulsive.”

— Additional reporting by Haley Brown