1 World Trade Center lands Conde Nast

NEW YORK, May 17 (UPI) -- The ground zero address 1 World Trade Center in New York has landed a critical corporate tenant, Conde Nast Publications, developers and public officials said.

Conde Nast -- publishers of 18 magazines, including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Bon Appetit and Architectural Digest -- gives a legitimate corporate flavor to a building that some feared would be occupied only by government agencies in a neighborhood dominated by financial firms, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Conde Nast has signed a 25-year lease valued at $2 billion, but the negotiations for the lease agreement included more than monetary considerations.

The publisher was especially concerned with smooth entrances and exits of its fleet of more than 100 executive cars and for the celebrity-occupied limousines that visit the company.

The lease calls for Conde Nast to rent 1 million square feet of the new 1,776-foot tall tower, for $60 per square foot per year, taking up floors 20 through 41 of the building beginning in 2014.

Christopher Ward, executive director of the Port Authority, which owns the building, said, "We built a new reality at the World Trade Center and this transaction will be the exclamation point on that turnaround."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo also praised the deal, which he said "sends a message to the global business community that Lower Manhattan is alive, growing and open for business."