Larry Silverstein, the owner of Silverstein Properties, has high hopes for what will happen in and around the World Trade Center site when construction wraps up. In an interview today, he talked about a self-sustaining – and soaring – local economy.

Silverstein said in a conversation published on his own World Trade Center site, “[The area] will experience a massive increase in the number of people working down here again, because you’re going to have a hundred thousand people who formerly went to the trade center coming back in when these [World Trade Center] buildings are built. That of course brings a whole range of other services that are needed by the hundred thousand people that’ll be working in the buildings.”

Then the developer continued, “So you put that together with the fact that these buildings contained about half a million square feet of destination and quality retail. The retail will serve the tenants in the buildings. The tenants in the buildings will serve the needs of retailers down below. It feeds on itself . . .”

Those are encouraging statements, especially given Silverstein’s expertise in these matters (he was actually a force behind the construction of 7 World Trade Center back in 1980).

Silverstein spoke about cooperating with the Port Authority and local politicians, too, which speaks to a smoother construction process from now on.