BMCC's Fiterman Hall Breaks Ground

New York, NY —

The redevelopment of the World Trade Center site has hit a major milestone with the groundbreaking for a new Fiterman Hall. It'll replace a 14 story building that was a key part of the campus of the Borough of Manhattan Community College, until it was badly damaged on September 11th.

City University of New York Chancellor Matthew Goldstein says the $300-million project will be done by 2012.

GOLDSTEIN: We have 22,000 students at BMCC and we're highly over crowded and this will give us the classrooms, laboratories, and amphitheaters, and libraries to do the things the campus needs to be done.

REPORTER: Rebuilding the instructional facility was complicated by the need to decontaminate and deconstruct the old building. Also, a fatal fire in 2007 at the nearby former Deutsche Bank building which was also under deconstruction, resulted in a delay at the Fiterman site as well.