History

History of Downtown Conference Center

The Downtown Conference Center (DCC) opened at its current location in May 2004. Prior to this, it had a proud heritage and proven history as a New York conference center in the Financial District.

Initially located on the 55th Floor of One World Trade Center, this Manhattan conference center was designed as a training venue for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Outstanding among NYC conference facilities, it featured 15,000 square feet of meeting space and mesmerizing views.

In 1997 Pace University acquired the property as headquarters for the World Trade Institute, providing business training in international trade and commerce. Programs proved successful and in 1999 the University hired Benchmark Hospitality International, a meeting management company, to operate its NYC meeting space.

The center was operating as an ideal New York City meeting space convenient to the World Financial Center, Wall Street and sister World Trade Center buildings until the events of September 11, 2001.

The conference center reopened as the Downtown Conference Center at 157 William Street in 2004. We had the privilege and honor to staff this New York conference center with five founding members from the original World Trade Institute team, including the Conference Center Manager. We are also pleased that several Benchmark employees transferred to the Downtown Conference Center to help successfully re-launch our New York City meeting facilities for this Pace University owned conference center.

The Downtown Conference Center  features 20,000 square feet of function space encompassing 26 dedicated meeting rooms including a tiered Amphitheater, Executive Boardroom and a Conference Dining Room with panoramic views of lower Manhattan. This NYC conference space features ceiling-mounted LCD projectors, plasma screens and trademark Benchmark Hospitality service for conference event planning.

Committed to the ongoing revitalization of Lower Manhattan, the Downtown Conference Center is a partner of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Wall Street Rising and the Downtown Alliance. When you are planning a meeting, our meeting services team invites you to consider the Downtown Conference Center as your New York City conference center in the Financial District.