For the twenty fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist assaults, The Actual Deal has compiled phrases from a number of of our sources about that day, its aftermath and the way it affected their lives.
The tales cowl close to misses and tragic losses. Larry Silverstein, whose firm owned the World Commerce Middle advanced, was absent from his scheduled assembly within the Twin Towers that morning for a scheduled physician’s appointment. Michael Liebowitz, the president and CEO of Douglas Elliman, negotiated insurance coverage on the World Commerce Middle advanced and suggested Silverstein to bump up protection in case of whole destruction. Howard Lutnick mirrored on turning into the “face” of Sept. 11 within the years after the assaults.
Numerous others in the true property business have tales of loss, tragedy and resilience stemming from these days. We’ve got chosen only a few.
Reminiscences of the Day
A lot of these nonetheless lively in actual property had been current in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, and bear in mind watching the day unfold.
Larry Silverstein, the founding father of Silverstein Properties, closed on a deal to personal the World Commerce Middle simply weeks earlier than Sept. 11. He would have sometimes been seated for a breakfast assembly on the Home windows on the World restaurant on the 107th ground of the North Tower. However his spouse insisted he go to a scheduled dermatologist appointment as a substitute.
He recounted his recollections from the remainder of that day in his 2024 memoir, “The Rising: The Twenty-12 months Battle to Rebuild the World Commerce Middle.” An excerpt has been reprinted right here with permission.
What can I say about the remainder of that day? The exact particulars are buried deep in my thoughts; even many years later they’re apparently too painful to relive absolutely. What I do recall is a sequence of opaque photos, the occasions blurred like images that had been by no means absolutely developed. My reminiscence has all the time been one among my prides, and I’d usually boast about it. However when I attempt to look again on that grim day, I’m overwhelmed. I can recall solely moments, intimations of what I’d lived via.
There I used to be nonetheless within the house, Klara and I watching the tv in surprised silence when the second aircraft abruptly turned north and slammed into the South Tower. How can this be occurring? my thoughts screamed.
And what about my youngsters? Each Roger and Lisa labored within the Commerce Middle advanced. And the individuals who labored for me? We had momentary places of work on the eighty-ninth ground; I hoped they hadn’t arrived earlier than 9. After I tried to name their cells, the workplace—nothing. All of the telephones had been down in Decrease Manhattan and it could stay that exasperating manner all day. I wished, I wanted to know that my youngsters, my staff, my tenants had been alive—and I couldn’t attain anybody.
Then the towers fell. They began to crumble—and identical to that they had been gone. One second they had been there, after which they weren’t. I used to be completely staggered. I couldn’t imagine what I used to be seeing with my very own eyes. But within the subsequent prompt my bewilderment gave strategy to prayers. The place had been my youngsters? My staff?
All of the sudden I noticed I wanted to get to our workplace at 521 Fifth Avenue, on Forty-Fourth Avenue. It grew to become crucial, the one factor that mattered. I wished to get some kind of management over the dashing surge of occasions and I unreasonably determined that if I used to be within the workplace, seated at my desk, order can be restored. The world I as soon as knew can be reinstated.
All through the day, our convention room started to fill with folks. They had been the wives and husbands of our staff. It was a group of strangers all of a sudden linked by frequent prayers, by wishful hopes.
My youngsters, thank God, made it to the Fifth Avenue workplace. Each Roger and Lisa had tales to inform, tales of fortuitous escapes. Their arrivals created a surge of hope within the anxious family members of the lacking who had been crowded into the convention room.
Then at round three p.m. Invoice Dacunto, the person who was second in control of all our buildings, arrived. He was utterly coated in ash, a grey, ghostlike presence. I couldn’t acknowledge him at first.
I led Invoice into the convention room so he may share what he knew, what he had seen with those that had been ready for hours and hours for some phrase from their family members. It was a mistake. Once they noticed him—weary, saddened, blanketed within the thick white soot that was all that remained of the buildings the place their husbands and wives labored—they began to appreciate that every one wouldn’t be set proper, that the day wouldn’t have a miraculous ending.
Howard Lutnick, now the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, was the president and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald on the time of the assaults. The corporate misplaced 658 staff, together with Lutnick’s brother Gary.
Lutnick recounted the occasions and aftermath for NPR’s Weekend Edition in 2016.
You weren’t there on that morning.
So it was my son Kyle’s first day of kindergarten. After which as I stroll him upstairs, an administrator grabs me and says, you recognize, your workplace is in search of you. A aircraft has hit the constructing. So I jumped within the automobile. And clearly, as I received down there, I noticed that massive, black, billowing smoke.
And the man that was driving my automobile began crying. I used to be like, let’s simply — we received to get there. We simply received to get there. And so I drove proper to the constructing and received to the door of the constructing and began grabbing folks as they got here out.
Did you see anybody you knew?
I didn’t. You understand, I used to be grabbing folks as they got here out. After which I heard this sound. It was the loudest sound I’d ever heard. What it was was Two World Commerce Middle collapsed. So I simply begin working. I am simply working.
And I look over my shoulder. And there is this huge, large, black twister of smoke chasing me. So I dive below a automobile. And the black smoke simply went “foosh.” You understand, I used to be saying, don’t breathe, don’t breathe, don’t breathe. After which take a deep breath.
After which, you recognize, all this kind of particles and soot and mud begins filling my lungs. I understood instantly that if I used to be suffocating and I used to be exterior, how may they presumably have survived inside?
Steve Witkoff, now a U.S. particular envoy, based the industrial actual property agency Witkoff Group. He was in New York on Sept. 11. His story was recounted in TRD’s e-book “The New Kings of New York,” by Adam Piore, excerpted below:
Steve Witkoff was in his workplace on the previous Each day Information increase on forty second Avenue, and will see the smoke coming from the towers via his home windows. At 9:59 am, he watched in horror because the South Tower got here crashing down, adopted 29 minutes later by its twin subsequent door.
Witkoff rushed as much as the Bronx to gather his youngsters from the Riverdale Faculty. Quickly after returning residence, he received a name from Bo Dietl and Mike Ciravolo, two previous associates who had been retired NYPD detectives. They prompt heading Downtown to assist, which is how Witkoff ended up standing on a chunk of mangled metal, on a rope line till 5 a.m. the following morning, holding the tip of a protracted twine tied across the stomach of a firefighter with a flesh-sniffing canine digging via the rubble of the huge pile of particles, trying to find survivors.
After that exhausting evening on the pile, Witkoff walked into the ornate foyer of his $146 million trophy [the Woolworth Building], with its cathedral-like ceilings, bronze fixtures and elaborate glass mosaics, and was stunned to seek out exhausted firefighters, law enforcement officials and different first responders stretched out on nearly each inch of obtainable ground house. Their garments had been coated in ash, and their palms had been uncooked from digging via the rubble, he recalled, which made for a surprising tableau set in opposition to the marble flooring and wealthy pink carpeting of the tower.
Witkoff was so moved, he walked an American flag as much as the highest of the skyscraper — the elevators had been out — and raised it. He moved a generator in, vowing to maintain the constructing open it doesn’t matter what. For the following 30 days, the constructing served as a staging space, and slept a lot of the tenth Precinct and first responders from different areas.
Angela Aman, now CEO of Kilroy Realty, was contemporary off a bachelor’s on the College of Pennsylvania and dealing throughout from the World Commerce Middle at Deutsche Financial institution when the towers had been hit. In a 2025 Closing interview, Aman stated the expertise gave her a “sophisticated” relationship with New York the primary time she lived there.
Have been you at work on 9/11?
I used to be there… It was so way back at this level, however I hadn’t gotten to work simply but. I received off the subway that morning on the World Commerce Middle exit after the primary aircraft hit, however earlier than the second aircraft, so I used to be standing proper exterior, beneath the South Tower when it was hit. Our constructing was destroyed. They’d a catastrophe restoration location in New Jersey for some time, after which we had a short lived location in Midtown.
Mary Ann Tighe, present CEO of CBRE’s New York and Tri-state area and an influential participant within the post-Sept. 11 rehabilitation of Downtown, told TRD she noticed Larry Silverstein by likelihood the night of the assaults, strengthening her resolve.
I believed, from the horrible second of 9/11 on, that it was a singular second of alternative for town after this immense tragedy. … I bumped into [Silverstein] — he was about to enter a spot to have dinner, and I bumped into him on the road on the Higher East Aspect. We had been standing in entrance of one another and I started to cry. And he put his arms round me and stated, “Sweetheart, we’re gonna rebuild.” That is 6 o’clock on the evening of 9/11… I’d wish to assume a lot of my constructive response to it has been as a consequence of that second.
John Santora, now CEO of WeWork, was the pinnacle of worldwide building administration at Cushman & Wakefield on the time of the assaults. He had had a key position in arranging the World Commerce Middle sale to Silverstein Properties. At a TRD Salon Series in 2025, Santora defined that many individuals he labored with on the towers had been inside them that day.
It’s a narrative I haven’t instructed a lot, however Arthur Moranti referred to as me — I used to be on a convention name, Arthur was our CEO then — and he stated, “A aircraft simply hit the Commerce Middle, name Larry and see when you will help.” … Clearly I can’t get anyone from Larry’s workplace on the telephone. So we then noticed what occurred and 10 or 12 of us jumped on the subway to go down to assist. And you recognize, we had been in that subway pondering like, “Alright so how will we rebuild this?” and all that, and all these conversations are occurring. And once we got here out the primary tower had fallen.
Instant aftermath
Within the aftermath of the assaults, those that at the moment are actual property figures needed to choose up the items of their firms, households and neighborhoods.
Michael Liebowitz is at the moment the CEO and president of Douglas Elliman, however he beforehand labored within the insurance coverage business, constructing a threat administration empire. He had suggested Larry Silverstein to take out extra insurance coverage protection on the World Commerce Middle. He recounted that have in an interview for TRD’s Closing interview in January.
After I labored on [insurance coverage for the World Trade Center], I used to be possibly 32. It was a variety of strain. The rationale I wished that protection was I contemplated each buildings being destroyed, which everyone thought I used to be completely loopy for. How may each towers be destroyed? However if you’re evaluating threat, you consider each potential threat. The Silverstein folks wished to insure the buildings for a lot much less, clearly, due to the premium, and I’ll always remember, they stated, “Nicely, we’ve an engineering report that was achieved that may present $600 million value of injury if the buildings had been destroyed.” And I stated, “Nicely, what occurs if a aircraft hits the constructing?”
… The morning of 9/11 I used to be driving to my workplace. I received a name from somebody who instructed me a aircraft hit the constructing. I didn’t truly assume terrorism, although I set this system up in order that they needed to have terrorism insurance coverage, which was a novel factor. They couldn’t have an exclusion for terrorism. Nobody did that earlier than. That was by no means required in an insurance coverage coverage closing earlier than.
We took Silverstein’s premium from like $4 million to $15 million, and again then, that was a fortune. It affected the numbers of their transaction, and so they had been very upset about it. However finally, the World Commerce Middle received rebuilt due to the work that we did. I testified within the trials. I used to be busy working post-9/11 on this declare, and it actually took my enterprise to an entire different degree. But it surely was such a horrible occasion that made that occur.
Consider, it was the Port Authority who was doing the lease [with Silverstein]. Their places of work had been within the World Commerce Middle. So there have been those who I handled that didn’t make it. It was a tricky time.
Sharif El-Gamal is the founding father of Soho Properties. He gained notoriety within the years after the assaults for his position in proposing an Islamic group middle and mosque blocks from the place the towers had stood. The “Floor Zero mosque,” because it was popularly referred to as, generated controversy, and the plan was finally scrapped. He recounted his expertise within the Muslim group post-Sept. 11 for Frontline in 2011.
After 9/11, on the time I used to be residing and dealing in Decrease Manhattan, and I lived on Canal Avenue, Canal and Broadway, and I began going to a mosque on Warren Avenue. We’ve got our congregation prayers on Friday, that are the equal of a Sabbath for Jews on Saturday or a Christian mass or sermon on Sunday. … Generally it felt that God was speaking to me instantly.
… Some unbelievable students would come into that venue, and it was packed. There have been a number of thousand folks throughout [Friday] prayers, and when you received there late, you had been praying down [on] the sidewalk or on the steps. … We had been packed like sardines, and it didn’t really feel proper that, one, that it’s so crowded. And you recognize, I used to be in the true property enterprise, and I nearly made an instantaneous dedication. I made a promise to God and I made a promise to myself that I used to be going to assist this group with no matter expertise I’ve.
… And on the similar time, I felt the brotherhood. You felt this unconditional love, no judgments. You felt a camaraderie, and also you noticed that is your id, and that was the factor that you just all seemed for. All of us as human beings are in search of group. We’re pack folks. I don’t even know what that’s referred to as, however we should be collectively. … I stated: “Guys, we have to personal a constructing right here.”
Within the wake of profound loss, Howard Lutnick, head of Cantor Fitzgerald, ended up shutting down a number of departments on the agency, which was hemorrhaging cash. He instructed NPR:
The evening of September 11, I didn’t actually know who was alive and who wasn’t alive. So we had a convention name. It was about 10 o’clock at evening. And my staff referred to as in. And I stated, look, we’ve two decisions.
We are able to shut the agency down and go to our associates’ funerals. Keep in mind, that might be 20 funerals a day day-after-day for 35 straight days. And I’ve received to inform you, I’m not likely fascinated with going to work. All I need to do is climb below the covers and hug my household.
But when we’re going to go to work, we’re going to do it to deal with our associates’ households. So what do you need to do? You guys need to shut it down? Or do you need to work more durable than you’ve ever labored earlier than in your life? And that was the second the place the corporate survived.
… So that you had a enterprise to run amidst overwhelming grief. How did you start to place these items collectively?
Nicely, choices I made had been they wanted to have a boss for the enterprise. If I didn’t have a frontrunner, I shut it. And I had a division of 86 folks the place 4 folks survived. And you’ll’t actually construct a enterprise again with 4 folks.
Principally, we went from being an awesome firm that was making 1,000,000 {dollars} a day to an organization that was shedding 1,000,000 {dollars} a day. However all of them have mortgages to pay, and they should put meals on their desk.
So one of many issues I did is I’d name the leaders of different firms and say, right here, this man’s John. He sells this many merchandise. He’s extremely profitable. You’ll’ve by no means been in a position to rent him. He was by no means going to return give you the results you want.
However right here’s what I would like. I would like you to match what he made with me. And if not, in a single hour, I’m going to name your different competitor. And he’s going to be working there. And I received all my folks jobs.
Lutnick additional mirrored on his emotions in regards to the day, and on turning into a “face” of the tragedy, for a Closing interview in 2018.
What’s it wish to be the face of Sept. 11?
If I am going out to dinner, somebody will come as much as me and say they know a widow or a household. It’s actually unbelievable.
Isn’t that arduous?
To those that have had loss, reminiscence is probably the most lovely of your senses. So reminiscence and time takes out the ache.
Do you’ve regrets?
Positive. I want we had been by no means within the World Commerce Middle. I want my brother by no means got here to work for me. I want I by no means employed all my associates.
Do you get bored with folks asking you about 9/11?
By no means. Each Sept. 11 … our staff waive their day’s pay and we donate all the income that comes within the door. We attempt to make the worst day one thing extraordinary.
Aftereffects
The assaults and their aftermath had profound lingering results, altering how folks approached their lives, companies and efforts to rebuild town.
Dan Doctoroff served below New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and led town’s restoration and rebuilding efforts after the assaults. On the time, there was widespread anxiousness that the destruction would ship New York right into a interval of decline. With effort, that concern did not come to pass, as he defined in a TRD Salon Series in 2024.
The primary catalyst was 9/11. Individuals wished to rebuild town and make it larger than ever. … After we got here in after 9/11, folks feared that town was going to say no the identical manner it had within the Nineteen Seventies. We misplaced 800,000 folks within the ’70s. It took us 25 years to get them again. Twenty-five years. … Over time as we received issues achieved, the enterprise group and other people from all via the world had confidence in New York.
Maryanne Gilmartin, CEO of developer MAG Companions, instructed TRD that her husband started staying residence with the couple’s youngsters after the assaults. She referred to as the association “the key to my success in so some ways,” in a 2010 interview for the Closing.
He went into the police division after which received his regulation diploma. After 9/11, we checked out our life and stated we wished to take part in as significant a manner attainable in elevating our kids. I had the higher gig, so he was prepared to present it a whirl. I wish to say he couldn’t pack a diaper bag in 2001. Now he’s fairly good.
Steve Witkoff equally stated the assaults modified his perspective on work.
I made a decision it was beneath me to fret about my enterprise… I bear in mind pondering this will’t be about enterprise. And I used to be deeply impressed. It was, “What can I do?” Guys who had uniforms on are strolling up these staircases to rescue folks, and so they all died. They didn’t go residence to their households. That’s after I bear in mind pondering: “I can not do sufficient.”
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