Silverstein breaks ground on 2 World Trade Center for Amex

Silverstein Properties broke ground Thursday on 2 World Trade Center, the final skyscraper planned for the Lower Manhattan campus rebuilt after Sept. 11, with American Express committed as the sole anchor tenant for the entire building.

The tower at 200 Greenwich Street will rise 55 stories and 1,226 feet, delivering nearly 2 million square feet — all of it spoken for by Amex, which has been headquartered in Lower Manhattan for four decades. Silverstein expects to complete the building in 2031, closing out a 30-year rebuilding effort at the New York site.

Why it matters. Ground-up office construction has been scarce in a market still working through elevated vacancy, and speculative towers are nearly impossible to finance. A fully pre-leased, single-tenant development of this scale is a rare signal that trophy demand remains intact — and it anchors the last undeveloped parcel at one of the country’s most symbolic addresses.

The numbers. The project is projected to generate more than 3,200 direct and indirect construction jobs and house roughly 10,000 workers once open. Silverstein and city officials pegged the tower’s contribution to the local economy at $11.4 billion, with nearly $250 million in tax revenue.

What’s next. Construction now runs toward a 2031 ribbon-cutting, with Amex consolidating its headquarters operations into the new tower. “This symbolizes triumph and what can be accomplished in this country after what happened nearly 25 years ago,” said Lisa Silverstein, CEO of Silverstein Properties. The groundbreaking, alongside the start of American Express’s build-out, effectively completes the master plan for the 16-acre campus a quarter-century after the attacks.