ov. George E. Pataki, promising "a renewed sense of urgency" in the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, laid out a plan yesterday to complete substantial portions of the work at the World Trade Center site by the fifth anniversary of the attack of Sept. 11, 2001.

By that time, Mr. Pataki said, the permanent PATH commuter station at the site and the new Fulton Transit Center two blocks to the east will open, the substructure for the memorial to the victims of the attack will be completed, allowing construction of the memorial to proceed, and the erection of steel for the 1,776-foot tower, a signature piece of Daniel Libeskind's design for the site, will be finished.

Mr. Pataki also promised $50 million in improvements to make it easier to get around downtown, and he vowed to make the governor's New York City office the first tenant in the new skyscraper, which he called the "Freedom Tower."

In laying out plans for making Lower Manhattan whole again, Mr. Pataki was responding to intense criticism over the past month from downtown business leaders, who have complained about the lack of noticeable progress in rebuilding.

Some of the governor's programs went little beyond the cosmetic: for example, replacing the black shroud that hangs over the damaged Deutsche Bank building, at the southern edge of the trade center site, with a mural depicting the new tower.

Others, like improvements to open spaces, were first proposed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in December when he laid out his vision for Lower Manhattan, something that Mr. Pataki acknowledged.

But the governor's address — which he worked on all day Wednesday and which his staff reworked until the wee hours yesterday — also took the strategic step of drawing together into a coherent picture the myriad programs already under way or planned.

Many of those projects — like efforts to rebuild and improve the transportation systems downtown — were probably familiar to people who have been closely following the numerous federal, state and local agencies that have a hand in the rebuilding effort. But they have rarely if ever been assembled in a single vision.

Most of the 300 business and civic leaders who attended the luncheon, which was given by the Association for a Better New York at the Ritz-Carlton hotel near Battery Park, seemed pleased by the governor's plans.

Among them was Thomas A. Renyi, the chairman and chief executive of the Bank of New York , who last month was a co-author of a stinging memorandum to members of the New York City Partnership, a business advocacy group, that spoke of a "lack of clarity and the perceived loss of momentum" in the rebuilding.

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Renyi said that Mr. Pataki had "addressed all our concerns and more."

Mr. Bloomberg, who has been at odds with Mr. Pataki recently over budgetary matters, praised the governor's effort to use $50 million from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for the short-term improvements in Lower Manhattan.

"We have to do that as quickly as we possibly can," Mr. Bloomberg said. "Building a 1,700-foot building is a long-term project, but there are lots of people who live and work in Lower Manhattan, and we want to make a better environment for them right now."

Among the short-term projects were a new enclosed bridge over West Street, a covered walkway at Liberty and Church Streets that will better link the World Financial Center with the areas east of the trade center site, and a permanent and more pleasing solution to the security needs of the New York Stock Exchange than the maze of barriers along Wall and Broad Streets.

The former greenmarket at the World Trade Center will reopen this summer in Liberty Park Plaza, on Broadway at Liberty Street, and $3 million will go toward the new Millennium High School, a public school that will open downtown in December. An additional $10 million is slated for other open spaces and parks in Lower Manhattan, projects also called for by the mayor in December.

Mr. Pataki also said the development corporation would start an effort in June to get arts institutions to move to the new cultural buildings that will be built at ground zero.

For the longer term, Mr. Pataki announced that new, fast ferry service to the city's airports would begin soon, to La Guardia Airport in late 2004 and to Kennedy International Airport a year later. And he promised a decision within one year on how Lower Manhattan will connect by rail to Kennedy Airport: by a new tunnel under the East River or using existing tunnels and tracks.

The governor also gave the first completion dates for other projects: the permanent PATH station, to open in late 2006; the Fulton Transit Center, to open in 2007; and the underground pedestrian tunnels connecting the two stations and the World Financial Center, to open in 2009.

Mr. Pataki also promised that the new tower at the site would be completed around the beginning of 2008. It will be built, he said, by Larry A. Silverstein, the developer who holds the lease to office space at the site and who has already committed to rebuilding 7 World Trade Center next door.

Mr. Pataki's vow to move the governor's office to the tower drew applause and some chuckles, particularly from people who realized that his current term ends in 2006. Asked later whether the promise meant that he would seek a fourth term, Mr. Pataki said, "I rule nothing in, I rule nothing out."