The New York Stock Exchange is set to undergo an extensive renovation over the next year and a half to modernize its iconic trading floor. NY1's Annika Pergament filed the following report.

The most famous floor on Wall Street is getting a makeover.

The move is aimed at bringing more trading volume back to the exchange as well as encouraging independent brokerage firms to stay on the floor and expand their business.

"We've had traders over the last couple of years leave the trading floor because of the electronic environment. But in today's market, the differentiation that this market brings to the overall market is such a selling point that people actually want to come back into this market and so to accommodate that we're going to rebuild this trading floor so that they can come back," said NYSE Operations Executive Vice President Louis Pastina.

Since the 1960s, brokers at the NYSE have stood at trading booths jammed together in narrow four-foot-wide corridors -- a setup that's
about to change.

Under the new plan, floor traders will sit before modern computer terminals the same way so-called "upstairs" traders do at off-site facilities.

"This new environment will allow them the option to have four or five screens in front of them, trade electronically, with the option to come into the auction at any point during the trading day," Pastina said.

"Clearly having advanced technology and forming a trading desk that is normally upstairs and having it on the floor is going to help our business dramatically -- communication levels, speed of technology and growth of technology will help us be much more efficient in servicing our customers," said Jonathan Corpina, a Senior Managing Partner with Meridien Equity Partners.

The NYSE is hoping the changes will keep it competitive in the fast-changing world of trading. The floor once commanded roughly 80 percent of trading at the exchange. But with new regulations and a move to electronic trading, that market share has dramatically dropped.

"The problem is there are no traders left. As electronic trading takes over the number of people on the floor has shrunk to just a thousand from more than double that a few years ago," said Greg David of the CUNY Business Journalism Program. "The New York Stock Exchange has been in a desperate effort in the last couple of years to find ways to repopulate the floor."

Construction has already begun with the first phase expected to be complete early in the new year.

The NYSE would not disclose the cost of the project although there have been reports that it could be as much as $5 million.

Exchange officials say the renovation -- which is taking place after hours and weekends so as not to disrupt business -- will inspire more firms like Meridien to commit to staying on the century-old trading floor.