New businesses thrive in Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan’s revival is certainly not confined to development at the World Trade Center site; indeed, an array of new businesses have opened in the neighborhood in the 10 years since Sept. 11, the New York Post reported.

“[It’s] one of the greatest comeback stories in American history,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday, addressing business, government and cultural leaders at An Association For A Better New York Breakfast On Wall Street. “And I believe it will stand as our greatest monument to those we lost on Sept. 11 and to our unshakable faith in the moral imperative of protecting and preserving a free, open, democratic society,”

Bloomberg noted that the Financial District has added more residents over the last 10 years than Atlanta, Dallas and Philadelphia combined. The growing population has encouraged the development of 19 new hotels, more retail outlets than existed before the World Trade Center attacks, and schools.

Bloomberg pointed to Lower Manhattan’s biggest success stories: resident Minas Polychronakis, who reopened a shoe-repair shop that had been inside the World Trade Center for 25 years, Century 21 department store which is expanding rapidly, and a row of Vibrant Restaurants On Stone Street. [Post]