At long last, the finish (or rather, starting line) may be in sight for 2 World Trade Center.

Commercial Observer reports that Silverstein Properties, the developer of 2 World Trade Center, expects to secure tenants for leasing commitments for the property within the coming 6-to-12 months, finally allowing construction of the office tower to move forward.  Technology and finance industry firms are reportedly eyeing the property.

The news comes five years after an earlier deal which could have brought the tower to fruition fell apart.   News Corp. and 21st Century Fox had been slated to anchor the tower, then envisioned as an 80-story, Bjarke Ingels-designed building with 2.8 million square feet of office space, only to abandon that plan after months of negotiations in favor of remaining in Midtown.

Rendering of the completed World Trade Center complex, showing Foster + Partners' original design for 2 World Trade CenterDBOX

The report also reaffirms that Norman Foster of Foster + Partners, the original architect behind 2 World Trade Center, has been once again retained to design the tower.  The Pritzker Prize winner, perhaps best known locally for the Hearst Tower, had originally designed the tower with jagged, slanting roofline arranged to appear as four diamonds.

Although the 2 World Trade Center site, located at the intersection of Church and Vesey Streets, is considered perhaps the best located development site on the 16-acre World Trade Center campus, it has languished in part due to a lack of public assistance.  The other towers on the property, which are almost fully leased, have all relied on some form of government subsidy.

Elsewhere within the World Trade Center complex, Silverstein has teamed with KPF on 5 WTC - a more than 1.5-million-square-foot office tower will rise from one of the center's final development sites.