News Release
For Release: Immediate
Contact: Frank Baraff 914-962-4630

Invitation: News Media Tour of Full-Size World Trade Center Model in Orange New Jersey. Wednesday, August 19th, 2:00pm at Metfab Metals, LLC, 560 Freeman Street, Orange, NJ  07050

Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, Jr. invites you to join him on a tour of an actual size model of the first 5 floors of World Trade Center 4 (WTC4), a building that will rise at Ground Zero. The model, presently on the site of a local business, is the prototype for the face of the first building being erected at Ground Zero in Manhattan.

The Orange business, Metfab Metals, LLC, was awarded a major contract to fabricate essential metal parts for the building of the façade at WTC4, as well as the Freedom Tower (WTC1) itself. Called a “VMU” (‘visual model unit’) this built-to-scale mock-up of the first 5 floors appears now just as it will in coming months at the Ground Zero site.

This also gives the owner, Port Authority officials, architects, engineers and contractors the chance to make final adjustments to its appearance and configuration before they go full-speed ahead to production and building. Before this happens, the model will be taken to a Florida location for “bomb-blast” testing, as this building will be built to withstand even another evil attack by terrorists.

Statement by Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, Jr.

“As we approach the 8th Anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, I am proud of the role that Orange is playing in the rebuilding of Ground Zero. Many of the victims were residents of New Jersey. It is fitting that a New Jersey firm, right here in Orange, is a key element in making the rebuilt World Trade Center and its tenants more secure from terrorists. Metfab is a long-time and respected member of Orange’s business community, and I am pleased to highlight the firm’s latest accomplishment.”

About Metfab

METFAB METALS, LLC is a full-service fabricator of all metals. Its roots are in all aspects of the metal fabricating business dating back to the establishment of the first family shop in 1947! The Murray family has consistently run the business for over fifty years! Since a complete re-organization in 2005, Metfab now deals in all types of metals and alloys and manufactures and supplies metal products to the construction industry and local contractors. The owner is Jim Murray. His wife Lauri is the treasurer of the business and his son Jay heads its sales efforts.

The original business was started by Jim’s grandfather in Jersey City. Jim re-located a much-larger fabrication business to Orange almost twenty years ago. About 10 years ago, Jim bought its present building on Freeman Street and has since expanded into two adjacent buildings. What was a 2-man shop before getting to Orange now has 20 people in its employ (and will add more as these jobs go forward).

In recent years, Metfab has done an increasing amount of true specialty work. They made hundreds of feet of polished stainless steel custom railings to surround a roof full of high-end features in a Battery Park condo complex near the same World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan.

Metfab also met the challenge of ‘roofing’ and making huge enclosure parts to cover a commercial courtyard surrounded by two older, existing buildings and a brand-new parking ramp in Washington, DC. Steel components for federal courthouses, Mormon temples, college libraries and myriad of other structures have come from this local Orange manufacturer. With its growing expertise in evolving technologies such as “bomb-blast”, Solarban and a world of “GREEN” construction, Metfab has coordinated the fabricated metal needs to fulfill the sealing of modern energy-efficient buildings and other notable structures throughout the country.

More information about Metfab is available at www.metfabmetals.com.