New York, New York - The Perelman Performing Arts Center, aka the new PAC NYC, held its opening ceremony on Wednesday in anticipation of opening to the public on September 19. And here's why young New Yorkers can get seriously hyped.

TAG24 NEWS was on the scene for a bustling kick-off, taking in the huge "floating cube" that will soon become the Big Apple's brand-new home for all things theater and the arts.

After speeches from former New York City Mayor and PAC NYC Chairman Michael Bloomberg, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, we dove in to find out what's inside the box, and how its leaders are thinking outside of it.

PAC NYC Executive and Artistic Directors Khady Kamara and Bill Rauch also spoke, gave a short tour of one of the moveable performance spaces complete with that "new theater smell," and dished on why Gen Zers and millennials have lots to be excited for.

"The work [at PAC NYC] is gonna be hip and fun and entertaining, risk-taking and unusual," Rauch told TAG24. "This building is going to have a great social scene."

But what exactly is PAC NYC, and what's in store?

If you haven’t heard of PAC NYC, just look for the 138-foot-tall cube standing directly next to One World Trade and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. The sleek, modern building was named for businessman, philanthropist, and chief benefactor Ronald O. Perelman.

The PAC NYC building is wildly flexible in its abilities, as its stage and audience seating can be transformed with the touch of some buttons. Its three principal venue spaces can be used independently or combined. Collectively, there are 60 unique stage-audience arrangements with capacities from 90 to 950 seats.

The box is wrapped like a present in nearly 5,000 marble tiles laminated into insulated glass. Their semi-translucent look allows light to radiate in during the day and shine from the inside out at nighttime – glowing on the inside and outside during the day and night, respectively.

The walls evoke stained-glass, something echoed in Governor Kathy Hochul’s remarks: "Vision… went into every single block of marble selected from the finest quarries in Portugal because New York deserved the best... This place is a cathedral."

The building's towering hull feels not just holy but aptly hollow, considering it's built directly on Ground Zero – a place that still reverberates with harrowing memories of the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, while aiming to play a new song.

"Today we inaugurate the last major piece of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site and one that will help us to open a new chapter in the history of lower Manhattan," Bloomberg said at the opening event, completing a vision that's been 20 years in the making.

"From the beginning of the rebuilding process [after 9/11], our administration believed that alongside the Memorial and Museum… a center for culture and creativity also belonged here, that the arts would help bring new life to the site [and] build a brighter future for lower Manhattan and our whole city."

Paula Grant Berry, a board member of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum who lost her husband in the 2001 attacks, said that now decades later, "we have the Performing Arts Center… a place to celebrate life."

"I feel, although we’re always going to remember what happened here in the past, it’s time to build some new memories," she added. "That’s what this performing arts center will do. It will make this site not just a reminder of where our loved ones died but why they lived."

"Out of the ashes something new, something wonderful, has risen."

Although the new space has an ultra-lux feel, young New Yorkers shouldn’t be intimidated.

As millennials and Gen Z largely lack disposable income, PAC NYC has some exciting opportunities for even the most cash-strapped among us.

"The lobby stage performances will be free to the public Tuesdays through Sundays," Rauch explained.

He also said the center has set aside an allotment of tickets so that anyone under 30 can get $30 tickets to performances at PAC NYC, pending availability. Plus, the center is kicking off with a five-night "pay-what-you-wish" global concert series.

And PAC NYC sits on top of nearly all major NYC transit lines – 13 to be exact – so it’s a breeze to get there and back from a night out on the town.

As former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told TAG24: "There’s art here for people of every age, from people of every background, who have every different kind of taste."

"We have three different venues which you can combine or split up," he added. "One of the beauties of the building is that it accommodates and attracts all sorts of different things for all sorts of people. What’s great about New York is the diversity. That’s what distinguishes us from anybody else that has 8 million people."

PAC NYC will bring together artists across disciplines, feature celebrity concert spotlights, and updated twists on some classics.

Case in point: a drag production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats that PAC promises will see "club beats and runway ready choreography" trade "feline for fierce."

The food will also be in the spotlight at PAC NYC. Its new lobby restaurant, Metropolis by famed chef Marcus Samuelsson, features a glamorous cocktail bar, outdoor terrace, and private dining room. The lobby's industrial meets mid-century modern decor by design firm Rockwell Group knits together the locale's past and its exciting future.

"It’s not just [aiming to be] the best restaurant in New York, but the best restaurant in the world," Bloomberg said of Metropolis.

"It’s just a cool building to spend time in, with the sun coming in through the marble and at night the building glowing from within," Rauch said. "It’s going to attract young people for sure."

With PAC NYC's inaugural season about to light up the stage, New Yorkers sure have a lot of glowing to bask in.