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One World Trade Center to recapture the N.Y. skyline

Sally Herships Apr 30, 2012

Jeremy Hobson: Now to New York City, where as early as today, the skyline gets a new king. One World Trade Center will become the tallest building in the city.

But because you can’t judge a book by its cover, we asked Sally Herships to find out if lower Manhattan is rebounding as quickly as its skyline.


Sally Herships: Sorry, Empire State Building — you had a good run. At least all this construction at One World Trade is good news for downtown Manhattan. That neighborhood is back. Right?

Ken McCarthy: Well, depends on what you mean by ‘back.’

Ken McCarthy works with commercial real estate firm Cushman and Wakefield. He says before September 11, the financial industry took up half the neighborhood. Since then some financial firms have moved uptown. But:

McCarthy: The number of people living in lower Manhattan has increased dramatically.

Old office buildings make nice residential spaces. Today there about 60,000 people living downtown. That’s twice as many as a decade ago. And new kinds of commercial tenants have moved in too.

Liz Berger: Creative services, professional services, nonprofits.

Liz Berger is president of the Alliance for Downtown NY.

Berger: Everything from Conde Nast to Priceline to the William J. Clinton Foundation.

And a dozen new hotels. Which means there’s more room for tourists — another growing industry — to come and see the changes for themselves.

In New York, I’m Sally Herships for Marketplace.

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