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Ah, a fitting memorial, no? [EMAIL PROTECTED] Planners Want to Double Retail Space at Trade Center November 21, 2002 By EDWARD WYATT The chairman of the company that holds the rights to build retail stores at the World Trade Center site said yesterday that officials assured him that his company, which has been quiet in public discussions about the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, will now have a more active role in planning the effort. Frank Lowy, chairman of the Westfield Group, an Australian operator of shopping malls, said that in a meeting yesterday, senior officials from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation also committed to trying to build more than twice the amount of retail space that existed on Sept. 11, 2001. "We want to be part of the process to determine where and what size the shopping facilities ought to be," Mr. Lowy said yesterday after a ceremony unveiling the architectural plans for the rebuilding of 7 World Trade Center, just north where the twin towers stood. "Now that there is something to add, we will say a lot." Mr. Lowy said his company had "stayed in the background" to minimize controversy. But, after meeting with rebuilding officials yesterday, he added, "We will be welcomed into the process." A Port Authority spokesman, Peter Yerkes, said the agency "is working with a number of parties, including Westfield, although nothing has been finalized." A spokesman for the development corporation, Matthew Higgins, said that Westfield, as leaseholders, will continue to have a planning role. The Westfield Group, through an American subsidiary, holds the rights to operate the retail stores at the trade center, a right it secured when it joined with the developer Larry A. Silverstein to lease the trade center properties from the Port Authority in 2001, just before the attacks. Before Sept. 11, about 430,000 square feet of retail space existed at the trade center, most of it along the concourse that stretched among the seven buildings in the complex beneath the outdoor plaza. In its contract, Westfield had the right to expand its retail space to 650,000 square feet. But when officials of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation gave instructions to the seven teams of architects working on plans for the site, they told the designers that they could include up to one million square feet of retail space. "I feel confident that we will be able to fill one million square feet," Mr. Lowy said. Westfield attracted criticism early in the rebuilding process when it suggested that it wanted its stores to be enclosed in a mall-like structure, rather than be in the base of separate buildings open to the street. The suggestion angered relatives of the dead who view some or all of the site as sacred ground. Struggling downtown merchants have also expressed fears that extensive competition will hurt their businesses. Yesterday, Mr. Lowy said that he was not opposed to having stores in the ground floors of the site's new buildings, as long as there was no automobile traffic that would hinder pedestrians moving through the retail complex to and from a planned transit hub downtown. "What we are looking for is to have unimpeded access from one part of the retail complex to another," he said. "It's very important that it's connected to the transportation hub, because people will pass by there." But, he added, "It doesn't matter if it's below ground or above." Mr. Lowy said his company has consulted with David Childs, of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, who designed the 7 World Trade Center building unveiled yesterday. The new building, which Mr. Silverstein said he believed will still be called 7 World Trade Center, is to include 1.7 million square feet of office space. It will be 750 feet tall, the equivalent of 52 stories, although the bottom 10 stories will house equipment for a Con Edison substation like the one that was in the previous building. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/21/nyregion/21REBU.html?ex=1038871500&ei=1&en=d4726caf1a5f5ab7 HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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