Turner Construction broke ground on 2 World Trade Center on 9 July 2026. The contractor expects to complete the 2-million-square-foot American Express headquarters in 2031. The tower will stand 1,226 feet tall across 55 floors.
Silverstein Properties develops the project and Foster + Partners designed it. The building rises at 200 Greenwich Street on land owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey under a long-term ground lease. American Express will be the tower's sole tenant. The company moves from 200 Vesey Street, its headquarters since 1986.
What the Commitment Covers
The lease covers the whole building. The 2 million square feet arrive in 2031 held by one tenant, and the space never enters the availability pool. Ask American Express and Silverstein for the disposition plan on 200 Vesey Street.
The project uses union labor for shell, core and core interior construction. The design pursues LEED certification with fully electric systems. Officials have not disclosed the total project cost.
Kevin O'Toole, chairman of the Port Authority, called the groundbreaking a milestone in fulfilling a promise made 25 years ago to rebuild and remember after the 11 September attacks.
The District's Numbers
Lower Manhattan reported 1.14 million square feet of new leasing in the second quarter of 2026, a 26 percent increase on the first quarter and 36 percent above the five-year quarterly average, per the Alliance for Downtown New York. Absorption ran positive at 2,160,000 square feet. Overall vacancy finished at 22.3 percent, down 0.5 percent year over year. Class A asking rent rose for a third consecutive quarter to $63.60, the highest since the second quarter of 2021.
Manhattan-wide leasing reached 17.7 million square feet in the first half of 2026, 12.6 percent above the same period in 2025, per PwC. Borough-wide office vacancy fell to its lowest level since the third quarter of 2021.
The Position
One anchor tenant commitment tells a reader what happens inside one building. The market read sits in the district's leasing, absorption and rent series, and those series answer whether downtown has turned.
The Hotel Link
PwC expects Manhattan's office recovery to support corporate travel, which drives midweek hotel demand. Downtown carried 8,100 hotel rooms across 42 properties in the second quarter, per the Alliance for Downtown New York. Occupancy reached 88 percent and average daily rate hit $366.99, the district's highest second quarter on record.
Hotel operators pricing corporate accounts for 2027 can track the district's leasing and absorption series across the build period. Room demand from the tower carries a 2031 date.