Australia's Westfield to invest in New York's Ground Zero

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian major shopping centre owner Westfield will invest 625 million US dollars in a retail project at the site of the World Trade Center in New York, it said Monday.

The Westfield Group said it will set up a joint venture with The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to develop and operate a 1.45 billion US dollar retail project at the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Westfield, Australia's largest shopping centre owner, originally acquired an interest in the retail facilities at the World Trade Center in July 2001 for about 130 million US dollars.

But two years after the twin towers were levelled by the attacks, Westfield sold its interest to the Port Authority.

The company reportedly kept an option, dependent on the...