Why are there no banks in the World Trade Center?

Pre 9/11, Cantor was headquartered in 1WTC and Morgan Stanley had a massive office in 2WTC. BofA, Lehman, and KBW also had a presence, though not as large.

The new One World Trade Center only has has a small number of financial institutions period and no banks. I suppose the larger banks tend to focus on having everything under one roof now in NYC, but I'm curious as to why no smaller banks are there considering it is an iconic location. I honestly would have thought that Cantor would be interested for symbolic reasons given their shows of strength right after 9/11. It seems most of the current One World Trade Center tenants are media firms. 

Considering how popular Hudson Yards is, I would have thought this would have been too.

 
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For a while, leasing was very slow in general, partially because of pushback from potential tenants put off by the association with 9/11, and partly because leasing there was expensive. However, I believe the building is pretty full now after the government stepped in and provided subsidies that made the space cheaper.

As for banks, think about it. If you're a senior at KBW and you were around back in 9/11, you probably wouldn't want to work in the area where so many of your co-workers and friends perished and be reminded of that day constantly.

 

Because the last time we had banks in the World Trade Center some rude dudes flew planes into it. 

"The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly" - Robert A. Wilson | "If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything" - Winston Churchill | "It's a testament to the sheer belligerence of the profession that people would rather argue about the 'risk-adjusted returns' of using inferior tooth cleaning methods." - kellycriterion
 

If I remember correctly, the leases were way above market. They had a super difficult time bringing in tenants. Also I am not too familar with NYC submarkets, but I think several banks were trying to move away from the financial district as they wanted to be in more happening spots like midtown. As someone above said, govt helped provide incentives to get tenants in the door, but will be interesting to see what happens in the future.

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Most seniors live in CT/LI/NJ or the UES/UWS. From all these places it is easier to get to Midtown than FiDi. This is a reason Hudson Yards (by Penn Station) is very popular. FiDi nowadays is mostly support teams/firms priced out of Midtown and more creative firms whose managers live in Brooklyn. GS and C are the only BB remaining in FiDi.

 

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