The World Trade Center site.

The World Trade Center site. Mark Lennihan/AP

Feds Return to World Trade Center

GSA signs 20-year lease for space in rebuilt facility.

The General Services Administration announced last week that the rebuilt World Trade Center at Ground Zero in Manhattan is once again a federal worksite. A lease signed with the Port Authority, the center’s landlord, and the Durst Organization, an equity partner and manager of the building, will sign over to GSA 270,000 rentable square feet on six floors of One World Trade Center.

“This reaffirms the federal government’s commitment to the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site and to this project that demonstrates the undaunted resilience of the American people,” said GSA Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini. “There will once again be a federal presence in the World Trade Center, as there was from its beginning."

GSA said the 20-year lease that starts in 2015 will also help the federal government reduce its overall real estate needs in Manhattan as it evaluates its long-term agency housing needs in New York.