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News Corp., 21st Century Fox may co-develop new WTC tower
Larry Silverstein has the rights to build 2 WTC, the 3.1M sf final tower on the site
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and 21st Century Fox are considering jointly developing a new 88-story skyscraper at the World Trade Center site, and moving their headquarters there.
The two media behemoths, whose brands include Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, have for months been in talks with developer Larry Silverstein, who has the rights to build the 3.1 million-square-foot 2 World Trade Center, the fourth and final office tower at the site, real estate and government officials told the New York Times.
The proposed new skyscraper would complete the World Trade Center complex that was destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001.
“This move would establish media hegemony in Lower Manhattan,” Mitchell Moss, professor of urban planning at New York University, told the newspaper. “News Corp. and Fox are in everyone’s living room. It removes any uncertainty that the new trade center would be a major economic engine and it validates the 15-year effort to rebuild the World Trade Center.”
The 2 WTC site is located at the corner of Vesey and Greenwich streets. News Corp. and Fox, currently headquartered at 1211 and 1185 Sixth Avenue, would require substantial revisions to the current plans, the newspaper reported. A spokesperson for 21st Century Fox told the Times that the two companies are “exploring options for their New York headquarters and the process is ongoing.’’ Technology and media companies have increasingly flocked to lower Manhattan.
Earlier this year, News Corp and 21st Century — currently located at 1211 and 1185 Sixth Avenue — pondered a move to Related Companies’ Hudson Yards, but ultimately decided against it. [NYT] — Claire Moses