World Trade Center Retail Operator Westfield Gives Vegas Presentation
By Daniel Geiger May 24, 2012 11:06 am
reprintsWestfield, the mall developer that has entered into a $600-million deal to operate and lease more than 350,000 square feet of retail space being built at the World Trade Center, quietly unveiled plans for the much-awaited retail development to select real estate brokers and potential tenants at the annual ICSC retail conference earlier this week, several sources told The Commercial Observer.
The company, which has been holding court during the show off-site at Caesars Palace in recent years, presented detailed models and drawings of the retail space as well as live action and computer generated video presentations that provided one of the best-realized glimpses yet of the space.
“I don’t know how to describe it, they had a private marketing suite for the World Trade Center retail space,” a source who was given the presentation told The Commercial Observer. “It was an amazing, remarkable presentation that was extremely well done with animation and fly-through views of the site the way it will look once it’s completely built.
Westfield and the Port Authority have yet to publicly disclose specific plans or pictures of the WTC retail space, even to the city’s brokerage community, which is eager to begin doing deals for at a site that was before 9/11 one of the most successful retail locations in the country. Earlier this week, Westfield officials said the first retailers at the site could be announced as early as next year while doors to the mall would open in 2015.
The trickle of information, however, has created uncertainty regarding what tenants the space will appeal to and how it will be designed.
Many of those questions appear to have been answered by Westfield’s private presentation.
“They had an incredible model that provided three dimensional views of the space,” the source said. “It was the highlight of my week at
ICSC.”
