Federalizing Freedom Tower

Interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal today about how the new Freedom Tower rising from the ashes of the World Trade Center will rely heavily on attracting federal agencies as tenants. Some tidbits:

• "An estimated 25% of the commercial office space at Ground Zero -- and at least 38% of the Freedom Tower -- will be filled by government tenants....But persuading government employees to work there may prove challenging. Some 750 customs and immigration workers fled from 6 World Trade before it was destroyed when the north Twin Tower collapsed."
• Real estate experts say that while the large percentage of federal agencies may be necessary to make the project viable, they also will make it difficult to attract private-sector organizations. One issue: agencies typically like plain, bare-bones lobbies in their buildings, which private firms typically disdain.
• Agencies, especially the more secretive ones, aren't all that wild about mixing with the private sector, either.
• The situation echoes the early years of the first World Trade Center, which was finished in 1973. It also struggled to find corporate tenants, and relied on government agencies to fill office space initially.