American Express, the credit card and bank giant, has embarked on plans to build a 55-floor, two million square-foot global headquarters in lower Manhattan amid a set of buildings that are part of the World Trade Center campus.
The company plans to complete the new skyscraper that will house some 10,000 employees by 2031, with construction beginning this spring, according to a press release it issued last week.
The new building, dubbed “2 World Trade Center,” will be located at 200 Greenwich Street, less than a mile from the company’s current headquarters at 200 Vesey Street. It will be built on land owned by the New York Port Authority per a long-term ground lease.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul thanked the company for its investment in the city. “Building 2 World Trade Center will bring another iconic skyscraper to Lower Manhattan, create thousands of good-paying union jobs, and provide billions in economic benefits to New Yorkers,” Hochul said in the Feb. 25 release.
The World Trade Center area of New York in lower Manhattan was decimated in the 2001 terrorist attack that killed some 3,000 people. The World Trade Center campus is a resurrection of the financial district now anchored by the skyscraper One World Trade Center, which is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at 104 stories. There are also several other buildings that are part of the 16-acre World Trade Center campus.
Amex’s revenue and profitability have increased in recent years despite challenges from new digital payments methods and the threat of more innovations posed by artificial intelligence.
A sagging Amex stock price this year echoes the market pressure that many payments companies have experienced as investors worry that AI will some day undercut the credit card industry.
Other perceived risks to the card industry this year have included President Donald Trump and Democrats’ support for caps on card interest rates.
Amex shares have dropped nearly 18% this year, giving the company a market capitalization of $209 billion, compared to an 8% drop for shares of card network rival Visa, which has a market cap of $605 billion.
With the new headquarters, Amex aims to “foster innovation, collaboration, and well-being for colleagues, while reinforcing the company’s deep roots in New York City,” the company said in the press release.
“This is an investment in our company’s future, our colleagues, and the Lower Manhattan community, reaffirming our deep commitment to the neighborhood we’ve called home for nearly two centuries,” Amex CEO Stephen Squeri said in the press release.
The new building will be equipped with smart-building technology and energy-efficient systems aimed at landing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. The property is being developed by Silverstein Properties, with Foster + Partners as the design architect.
