By Clarke Canfield,Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND – The public today will get a bird’s-eye view from atop the first building constructed at the site where the World Trade Center towers stood before being toppled in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

A photo showing a panoramic view from the top of the newly constructed 7 World Trade Center will appear in an insert ad in The New York Times Sunday Magazine to announce that the building is ready for occupancy. The ad marks the launch of a media campaign to lure tenants to the building.

The campaign is important because the eyes of the world are on the World Trade Center complex as it takes shape four years after the terrorist attacks, said John Coleman, CEO of The Via Group, the Portland agency that created the ad. The 52-story tower, which replaces the original 7 World Trade Center that collapsed the day of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is the first new building at the complex to open for business.

The ad is nontraditional, Coleman said, because it doesn’t show the building itself, which is just north of the main trade center site. Instead, it features a photo of New York City with the Financial District and Brooklyn to the east and Midtown and the Empire State Building to the north. The ad reads, “Your Office Is Ready.”

The ad aims to send a message about vision and seizing opportunity, Coleman said.

“It’s not about the building, it’s about the people in the building being able to see further, being able to see more,” he said in his Portland office. “You can see something you’ve never seen before because you’re in the building.”

Some people thought they’d never see the day when buildings destroyed in the 9/11 attacks came back to life.

Silverstein Properties, which acquired the World Trade Center just six weeks before the terrorist attacks, is redeveloping the site with five office towers, a transportation hub, a memorial, a performing arts center and a cultural center. The centerpiece Freedom Tower will be 1,776 feet high.

With construction of 7 World Trade Center nearing completion, Silverstein began looking for somebody to market the property. Two months ago it made its choice: The Via Group, a 12-year-old company that counts TD-Banknorth, Infinity Broadcasting, Raytheon and Dunkin’ Donuts among its clients.

The campaign kicks off today, with a fold-out insert in The New York Times Sunday Magazine. The Sunday newspaper has a circulation of nearly 1.7 million.

The ad is the equivalent to hanging out a sign that reads, “Open for Business,” said Janno Lieber, the World Trade Center project manager for Silverstein Properties.

Silverstein is negotiating with prospective tenants for the building, and Lieber is confident the building’s 1.7 million square feet will fill up quickly. Tenants are likely to include financial businesses as well as nonprofit organizations, ad agencies, public relations firms and technology companies.

One published report said that American Express Financial Advisors is negotiating a 15-year lease for about 20,000 square feet.

While much of the coverage surrounding the future of the World Trade Center site has focused on disputes about design and difficulties in finding tenants, the opening of 7 World Trade Center signals the beginning of the trade center area’s rebirth, Lieber said.

“It’s our statement to New York and nationally that this building is ready for business and we’re focusing on the decision makers who may now be interested in taking space there,” Lieber said.

Construction on the Freedom Tower will begin next spring, with occupancy scheduled for 2010, Lieber said. The other towers will open one per year after that.



The ad campaign in short order will expand to billboards and buses in New York. The ad inserts will appear in December issues of Forbes, Fortune, Money, Inc., Business Week and Fast Company magazines.

In the long term, the campaign could last for years for all the trade center properties, Coleman said. But that’s not why he considers Silverstein an important client.

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