00:00We think of a void that was created, and it really was one, to your point, that already existed.
00:06People already felt that the uses of this downtown area were not vital before 9-11.
00:14And so that void that was created that day sort of spurred so many New Yorkers to get on board
00:22to think about how to reinvent.
00:24And I just think it's so important, reporting the story, to note that those who played a part in conversions
00:32of those office buildings where you worked into residential,
00:36of opening restaurants when it was a leap of faith, of reopening businesses after 9-11, when people were scared
00:45to be down there, all of that.
00:47There's just a sense of pride now in what it has become, but also very much indicative of a New
00:53York spirit of resilience and reinvention.
00:56This was the land that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton also tread.
01:02And now the young people, the tech companies, Spotify, Uber, that are down there and making things happen in the
01:13New York way is a sign that we always reinvent ourselves.
01:18That was so elegantly put, Amanda.
01:20And I heard you about Spotify and some of the other companies that have really sprouted up and opened offices
01:25there.
01:26That gets to the point that Paul said, you know, basically it was the home of Wall Street and it
01:30was the financial district, but it's so much more than that now.
01:32I mean, finance is not even the, it's still a big part of downtown Manhattan, but in lower Manhattan, but
01:38it's not dominant the way it once was.
01:40That's exactly true.
01:42About a quarter of the office tenants in lower Manhattan are finance related.
01:47Tech, AI, design, a lot of creative industries have come in.
01:51And it's a place that is not just to go to the office.
01:55It's a place where people live and work.
01:58I talked to one 28-year-old who said that he chose the building that he did because the gym
02:05was open 24-7.
02:07And that was the critical thing.
02:09So what happened is that pre-9-11 and then afterward, when the responsibility was to make sure that we
02:19could remember and honor those lives that were lost,
02:23there was just a lot of energy and diversification that took place.
02:27My 30-year-old daughter, she tells me, I'm going to go meet some friends in Fidei.
02:31I'm like, what?
02:33Fidei?
02:33What is the financial district?
02:35You mean Wall Street?
02:36Is that what you're trying to tell me?
02:37It's just, apparently it's a place young folks are going to kind of meet for drinks and dinner.
02:40And I'm like, dude, you don't know what you're talking about, but all right.
02:43That's the future.
02:45That's what's going on down there.
02:46Let's not forget the bones were there.
02:48Charm, gargoyles on the buildings, old buildings that were not all torn down, not a grid.
02:54So people who live down there, you know, cite these elements of character and authenticity that they feel that they
03:02don't see anymore in the rest of New York.
03:04And then the transit, being able to get to Brooklyn, anywhere.
03:07I'll tell you, the Oculus, that thing, that Oculus Center down there, I mean, if you haven't been to that,
03:12that alone is a reason to go to lower Manhattan.
03:14The Oculus, it is a transportation hub.
03:17I mean, you can get, I think, like anywhere in the world from there.
03:19I think that's a really good point, the fact that you can get anywhere.
03:22And the transportation options, the public transportation options there are just phenomenal.
03:26And that was always the case, wasn't it?
03:29It was.
03:29Yes, but these, the Oculus, as you mentioned, the remaking of the Fulton Street Station, everything was remade and made
03:37much easier to use, much brighter.
03:40And that's an amenity that cannot be beat for New Yorkers.
03:46Some get to walk to work and some zip up to Midtown to their office.
03:51You spoke with Bill Rudin, who's co-executive chairman of a real estate company, Rudin.
03:56Yeah.
03:56And he was part of the, one of the key players who helped diversify the area before 9-11.
04:03What did he tell you?
04:04Well, you know, the family has played such a role at these critical times in my lifetime.
04:10In the 70s, his father helped New York through fiscal crisis.
04:14And then in this moment, in 1990, it was a Valentine's Day massacre, he told me, when Drexel Burnham went
04:21bankrupt.
04:21And they occupied most of the building that he had built initially for Goldman Sachs.
04:28And he talked about mothballing it until the market turned around.
04:34And I think that shows you how bleak the outlook was.
04:37But what happened is that, as in the 70s, business leaders got together and really decided to put their brains
04:44to this idea of diversification.
04:46And in that building, 55 Broad Street, they wired it, they put in broadband, fiber optics, the New York New
04:54Media Association opened their first office there.
04:58And it became sort of the initial hub and promotion of New York as a Silicon Alley, sort of the
05:06downtown anchor of that new corridor, which we've seen flourish so much.
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