Then again, St. Nicholas has a mission different from any other building on the site.

“The purpose is to project something that will open a window to eternity,” Archbishop Demetrios, the primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, said on Tuesday.

For years, little progress was made as the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey squabbled over how the church would be compensated for giving up the Cedar Street parcel — and the air rights along with it — which the authority needed to build an underground vehicle security center.

Conflicts over the future of St. Nicholas also played out within the Greek Orthodox community. The archbishop said in 2001 that he envisioned the new building as a memorial shrine, not just the parochial church it had been. Members of the small but still active parish felt they were entitled to more control over the project.

Not until 2011 was the path cleared for the plan that is now being realized, under which the church was to be situated at the east end of Liberty Park, a landscaped public space that the Port Authority is constructing on the roof of the vehicle security center.