The World Trade Center Is Finally Complete — Almost

A Promise Made After 9/11, Now Under Construction

Nearly a quarter century after the 9/11 terrorist attacks leveled the World Trade Center towers, work on the new campus' final office tower is now underway. On Thursday, July 9, construction crews broke ground on 2 World Trade Center — the last piece of a rebuilding effort that has defined Lower Manhattan for a generation. The construction begins less than two months before the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

American Express will buy and occupy the 55-story tower from developer Silverstein Properties upon its expected 2031 completion. The building is going up just north of the Oculus and will span nearly two million square feet across 55 floors, built on land owned by the Port Authority under a long-term ground lease. For a site that has carried the weight of national grief for 25 years, the moment felt like more than a construction milestone.

A Supertall Tower With Deep Roots

Developed by Silverstein Properties and designed by Foster + Partners, the 55-story, 1,226-foot supertall tower will encompass approximately 1.95 million square feet of premier office space. The tower will reach more than 100 feet higher than the neighboring 3 World Trade Center, delivered by Silverstein in 2018. The new space will accommodate up to 10,000 workers.

The building features over one acre of outdoor space, configured as three expansive terraces and six distinct corner gardens integrating nature into the vertical workplace. Once completed, it will stand as one of New York City's most technologically advanced and environmentally sustainable office buildings. The road to this moment, however, was anything but smooth. Plans for the site once called for a tower as tall as 80 stories, companies like News Corp. and 21st Century Fox were floated as potential tenants but nothing materialized, and the project grew even more difficult after the COVID-19 pandemic emptied offices.

American Express's Deep Commitment to Lower Manhattan

At the ceremony, American Express President of Enterprise Shared Services Denise Pickett reflected on the company's over 175-year history in Lower Manhattan, calling the project "a reaffirmation of our belief in this city" and noting that since the company's founding in 1850, New York has shaped who they are. Pickett also noted that "when many questioned what the future will hold, American Express chose to stay," adding that the groundbreaking reaffirms the company's confidence in the neighborhood — "right where you're all sitting right now."

The groundbreaking is also a milestone for Silverstein Properties, whose 95-year-old founder, Larry Silverstein, took over the complex just months before the terrorist attacks. Port Authority Chairman Kevin O'Toole called the event "an important milestone in fulfilling a promise made 25 years ago to rebuild, to restore and to remember in the aftermath of 9/11."

Jobs, Billions, and the Bigger Picture

Mayor Zohran Mamdani noted that the project will create more than 3,200 construction jobs while supporting thousands more permanent jobs once completed. The development will also add $6 billion to New York City's economy, shoring up property tax dollars that will fund essential services. The project will additionally create more than 2,000 union construction jobs.

Located at 200 Greenwich Street, 2 World Trade Center's completion will be the final milestone in the commercial buildout of the 16-acre World Trade Center campus and reinforces Lower Manhattan as a hub for commerce, tourism, transit, culture, and community. When the building opens its doors in 2031, it will close a chapter that began in the ash and rubble of September 2001 — and signal, perhaps more clearly than anything else, that the promise to rebuild has finally been kept.