Lower Manhattan Rebounded After 9/11, but the Pandemic Erased the Gains

The triumphant comeback of Lower Manhattan after 2001 became a rallying cry for New York City. But its offices have emptied out, tourists are gone, and hundreds of retailers have shut down.

The Amish Market opened in 1999 in the shadow of the World Trade Center, one of the few grocery stores and delis for residents and workers in the southernmost tip of Manhattan. Two years later, the 110-story twin towers at the complex collapsed in the Sept. 11 attacks, showering the store in fiery debris and ash. Shuttered after the attacks, the market reopened roughly five years later in a new location a few blocks away. It joined a triumphant comeback as Lower Manhattan was reborn into one of the country’s largest business districts, a vibrant residential neighborhood and, with the addition of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, a tourist destination. The Amish Market boomed, too, its staff doubling to 200 employees and weekly sales surging to more than $160,000.