Last World Trade Center tower starts as Silverstein pivots to lending

Silverstein Properties broke ground on 2 World Trade Center on July 7, the last office tower in the rebuilt downtown complex, as Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Port Authority officials and American Express executives joined CEO Lisa Silverstein at the ceremony; the credit card giant will anchor the 2 million-square-foot tower. Silverstein, who took over from Marty Burger in 2023 and is one of the few women at the helm of New York City development, kept the moment in perspective: “I ran out of that tent as fast as I could,” she told Commercial Observer.

The groundbreaking brings near its close the pledge her father, Larry, made 25 years ago after the Sept. 11 attacks, yet the family firm is already looking beyond the Manhattan skyline: the Cantor Silverstein Opportunity Zone Trust has raised $1.1 billion since 2022, and Silverstein Capital Partners, the lending arm, continues to expand. The recent record also includes a $7 billion casino proposal on the West Side that failed last year and the residential 5 World Trade Center, which was paused earlier this year as construction costs escalated.

What moved at 2 World Trade Center was pre-sold risk: an anchor tenant in American Express, a public landowner in the Port Authority, and a mayor at the groundbreaking. 5 World Trade Center, by contrast, waits while its cost base catches up with rents. That selectivity matches the broader market. Office conviction in the SitusAMC survey climbed to 11 percent in the second quarter from 4 percent in early 2025, but the bid has concentrated in modern, leased, amenity-rich assets, not speculative shells. Lower Manhattan has shrunk its office stock by 24 million square feet while adding 11,000 rentals; the 2 million square feet rising at 2 WTC is an exception that only an anchor could unlock.

The last shovel at ground zero closes a 25-year rebuilding era, but Silverstein’s future capital is already moving elsewhere: the lending book and opportunity-zone vehicles, not speculative towers. The family firm is positioning itself to price the next cycle’s risk rather than build it.