Site 1B is the favored location for the PAC

On Wednesday, October 21st, the City Council Committee on the Redevelopment of Lower Manhattan, chaired by Alan Gerson, held a hearing on the location of planned World Trade Center Performing Arts Center (PAC). At the hearing, city Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate Levin ensured local officials and community members, that the PAC would be built as promised at Vesey and Greenwich Streets, in the plot known as “Site 1B” -- rather than at “Site 5” where 130 Liberty Street now stands.

“We are 100 percent sure of Site 1B,” said Levin. “There would be complicated financial issues if we moved it to Site 5. We have approximately four months to move on this.”

David Emil, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is providing $55 million to build the PAC’s foundation, explained that the construction of the PAC cannot begin until the temporary PATH entrance at Site 1B is demolished. He said his agency is still studying the possibility of putting the PAC on Site 5, but admitted it’s better suited to Site 1B. “We don’t want to lease 1B and lose that site,” said Emil.

Councilman Gerson urged Levin and Emil to work with the Port Authority on the sub-grade foundation work since the agency is expected to issue a bid for Site 1B’s footings in a month.

Levin and Emil said they will work with the city, the community, and its stakeholders to determine who will run the PAC and its programming. Testifying for Community Board 1 (CB1), Catherine McVay Hughes invited all of the involved parties to a WTC Redevelopment Committee meeting on November 9th to help keep the project moving forward. Hughes also said CB1 favors Site 1B, and iterated that the community is discouraged that the project is taking so long to come to fruition.