Port Authority Wants Restaurant Atop Freedom Tower

With the hole at Ground Zero gradually filling in, the Port Authority is putting out its feelers for a company to develop and manage a two-floor restaurant on the 100th and 101st floors of the 102-story Freedom Tower.

Tomorrow the Port Authority expects to issue a request for expression of interest (RFEI) for the restaurant, seeking early, nonbinding bids from developers.

Windows on the World, the restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors of the old World Trade Center, was one of the world’s highest-grossing restaurants, according to a 2001 article in The New York Times, taking in some $24 million a year in the late 1980's.

The Port Authority hopes to select a developer some time this fall, with the grand opening slated for early 2013.