Could a private equity or hedge fund be the next owner of the new World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan?

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the bi-state agency that developed and owns the WTC, seems to hope so. The Wall Street Journal reports that the PA is shopping the future Freedom Tower, the 1,776-foot-tall, 2.6 million square foot centerpiece of the Trade Center site. The newspaper, citing people familiar with the situation, reports that the agency hopes to get hedge funds or private equity funds to buy all or part of the $3 billion skyscraper, which will be New York’s tallest upon its completion, scheduled for 2012.

So far, the Freedom Tower has lease commitments for 1 million square feet, all of it from the federal and New York State governments.