Conde Nast, which publishes Vogue and The New Yorker and 13 other magazines, has signed a tentative deal to move from 4 Times Square to 1 World Trade Center at Ground Zero, according to an article published today by Charles V. Bagli at nytimes.com

The article attributed its information to "two real estate executives who have been briefed on the negotiations," adding that the company "notified its employees in a memo Tuesday morning that it was in 'active negotiations' to move to 1 World Trade Center but a final decision was several months away."

1 World Trade Center was formerly known as the Freedom Tower and the 1,776-foot-high, 2.6-million-square-foot skyscraper will be the city's tallest building when completed in 2014.

Conde Nast now occupies about 800,000 square feet at 4 Times Square on the northeast corner of Broadway and 42nd Street, a skyscraper that was erected by The Durst Organization, which recently became a partner with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on the 1 World Trade Center project.

"The authority is hoping that Conde Nast will bring the same kind of cachet to a rebuilt trade center that the publisher brought to a dowdy Times Square in the late 1990s," the article maintained.

"'Just as it did for Times Square, a Conde Nast move would provide instant credibility to the World Trade Center site and, indeed, to the entire Downtown market,' said Carl Weisbrod, who had been active in rejuvenating both Times Square in the 1980s and, more recently, Lower Manhattan. 'Moreover, it would provide sorely needed diversity to Lower Manhattan's economy and would be the vanguard of a broader shift of creative companies from Midtown to the south,'" he continued.

Last month, The New York Daily News announced it move from west Midtown to 4 New York Plaza in Lower Manhattan.

Mr. Bagli's article said that "Conde Nast may not be the only company considering a move to the tower," adding that the "Bank of New York has also talked to the authority in recent weeks, although brokers say the bank is considering a half-dozen locations."

The Conde Nast deal "would signal a remarkable turnaround for a project that had been considered a marketing nightmare," the article said, adding that "After years of delay, the steel latticework for the $3.2 billion building is rising hundreds of feet into the skyline."

The article said that the "Port Authority declined to comment on any ongoing negotiations with tenants," adding that "Stephen Sigmund, a spokesman for the authority did say: 'There is clearly momentum both in the building of the World Trade Center site and the growing interest from potential tenants.'"

The original twin towers of the World Trade Center were demolished in terrorist attacks September 11, 2001 and the redevelopment of the site has been mired in controversy and extensive delays.