The World Trade Center -- Our Collective Tragedy

Shocking Wakeup Call... Last Tuesday morning, September 11, one of my daughters in New York City called me at 6:10 a.m. in California with news of the World Trade Center catastrophe. It took another five hours to learn that our other daughter, who had been teaching at P.S. 234-Independence School three blocks north of the North Tower, was safe along with her students.  For the balance of the week, my wife and I followed the tragic events, numbed by the scale of suffering.   And I suspect that for all of you, too, the business world stood still as we collectively grieved.  

Although last week's tragedy was primarily a human catastrophe, it was also a real estate catastrophe.  The mind boggles to think of the WTC Towers with almost 10 million square feet of office space crashing to the ground.  What actually caused the structural failure?  The University of Sydney's Department of Civil Engineering has posted some amazing information on the collapse, which was caused by intense heat generated by the fire.  The result seems quite obvious in retrospect.  Only the robust nature of the WTC's construction prevented an earlier collapse and enabled thousands to flee safely. 

A day after the disaster, CoStar began publishing extensive information on the WTC, including a complete list of tenants.  Later in the week CoStar offered full access to its NYC metropolitan database for free in cooperation with the Empire State Development web site.   (Click the "NY Site Finder" link to the right and then the headline "World Trade Center Disaster Alternative Space Listings.")  CityFeet has created a bulletin board for free or discounted space for temporarily displaced tenants -- in addition to its normal space listings.   Finally, MrOfficeSpace and lookingforspace.com also provide listings for New York City.  ...  As Mayor Giuliani says, the best response to this attack on our civilization is to rebuild even stronger. 

--Peter Pike / ppike@pikenet.com