If the Oculus Opens in March, When Will Westfield World Trade Center's Stores?

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Almost exactly a year after Brookfield Place's initial debut will mark the opening of the Oculus, or so say sources to Politico New York. The much-discussed structure and its wing-like metal spikes will house the World Trade Center Transportation hub and is scheduled to open its doors in early March — but unfortunately, that doesn't mean that the Westfield World Trade Center shopping complex and its 125 stores, including Apple and H&M, will arrive at the same time.

The Financial District's second big retail hub in as many years has been delayed over and over, most recently by water leaks; Politico acknowledges that this has contributed to why its debut and the Oculus's don't line up. However, the 200,000 commuters that the Oculus is expected to serve (plus the hundreds of thousands neighborhood residents, plus the millions of tourists that visit the tip of the island yearly) will have a tasty holdover: Eataly is expected to be the first venue to open in the spring, though the Batali-backed institution declined to comment on an opening date.