At a hearing yesterday held by the City Council’s Select Committee on Lower Manhattan Redevelopment, witnesses testified that retail space would be an appropriate space-holder for the barren World Trade Center site until leaseholder Larry Silverstein constructs his five commercial office towers.

“A blue-ribbon panel of international retail experts recently convened by the Urban Land Institute … recommended that the permanent retail space on the site be developed now,” an assistant vice president at the civic group Downtown Alliance, Jennifer Hensley, testified. “This would probably require foundations for new buildings to be constructed. Retail stores would then be erected and commercial space phased in on top of the retail, as determined by market needs.”

Those buildings, known as pedestal buildings, would be low-rise, with the potential for tall buildings to be constructed above them.

“The Port Authority has been looking into pedestal buildings to occupy the site until the towers are built,” the director of the Office of Economic Development and Rebuilding, Joshua Sirefman, said at the hearing.

“I don’t know if it is feasible, but if it is, it is a good idea,” Mr. Sirefman, who is also chief of staff for Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff, said.

The master plan for the site calls for the rebuilding of 10 million square feet of office space through five towers, including the Freedom Tower. It is expected that the construction of the Freedom Tower, and most likely Tower 2, will be covered by the insurance proceeds Mr. Silverstein received for property damage in the September 11 attack. Towers 3 and 4 are to be built in phases, with the construction for Tower 3 to begin as soon as Tower 2 is fully occupied, and Tower 4 to be built when Tower 3 has tenants. Tower 5, at the south end of the site, is viewed as less critical for the office-space development.

“I believe that most of our efforts in terms of commercial development should now be focused on the sites be tween Church and Greenwich streets, where Towers 2, 3, and 4 are to be located,” a vice president at the Related Companies, Vishaan Chakrabarti, said at the hearing.

Mr. Chakrabarti, who is a former director of the Manhattan office of the Department of City Planning, envisions “a permanent two- to three-story retail base along Church Street in concert with the Calatrava Station and the necessary underground infrastructure.”

“Building such a podium would not be without its challenges,” he said, “and would come with a premium, but it has been done before, with great success.”

He pointed to recent construction by Related in Chicago at 730 North Michigan Ave., where a Peninsula Hotel was constructed on top of a large retail base that had been built earlier.

“The buildings of the future are buildings that are mixed-use, with significant retail amenities in the base, office uses in the middle, and hotels and/or housing above,” Mr. Chakrabarti said.