BY Terese Loeb Kreuzer
The former Embassy Suites Hotel at 102 North End Avenue is getting an almost total makeover.
The property, which is owned by Goldman Sachs and is directly across a narrow breezeway from the investment bank’s headquarters at 200 West Street, closed on January 5. By the end of 2011, the hotel will reopen as Conrad New York with a bevy of new restaurants and retail establishments. All that will remain from the property’s former incarnation will be the Regal Battery Park Stadium movie theater (which will have a new box office location and two outdoor kiosks for ticket purchases) and Pick-a-Bagel on the Vesey Street flank of the building.
Goldman Sachs managing director Dino Fusco told Community Board 1’s Battery Park City Committee that the hotel’s old-fashioned façade is being replaced with expanses of glass to bring light into the building. New retail and restaurant tenants have signed leases and plans are now being finalized for adding a green roof.
Fusco said that Goldman hopes that the structure will be awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Status for its environmentally responsible features.
Because the Embassy Suites hotel roof was not designed to sustain a great deal of weight, landscape architect Ken Smith, who also designed the plantings in front of 200 West Street, has had to be imaginative in his treatment. Part of the roof will be planted with sedum, a succulent that doesn’t require much dirt in which to grow. It will be surrounded with materials such as crushed glass and crushed stones that will create attractive patterns for anyone looking at the roof from above.
Planters on the roof will be used to grow herbs for use by the hotel’s restaurants.
A 1, 350 square foot bar serving light food and beverages will occupy one part of the roof. It will be open seasonally as a vantage point both for hotel guests and for members of the public to admire Battery Park City’s dramatic vistas of the Hudson River.
At one time, Battery Park City had few restaurants to brag about. Now there will be so many in the Conrad hotel property that it may be difficult to choose. Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack on Murray Street, facing the ball fields, will be one of the first to open, possibly this spring. Next to it, Harry’s Italian Pizzabar, owned by the Poulakakas family, is coming in and is likely to open in the spring. Next to that will be two quick-service eateries, one offering pan-Asian food and the other, salads and sandwiches. A florist will flank the eastern entrance to the Conrad, which is being redesigned with a staircase leading to the atrium where the registration desk will be located under the large Sol Le Witt mural that remains from Embassy Suites. Then, on the corner, will be Pick-a-Bagel, where it is currently located.
On the Vesey Street side of the building, Danny Meyer is bringing in his barbecue restaurant, Blue Smoke. Next to that will be an ethnic restaurant, Fusco said. Negotiations are now under way with a tenant that would serve Mexican or Spanish food. At the corner of North End Avenue and Vesey Street, Goldman is considering bringing in a bookstore, a cosmetics store or a clothing store. Finally, on the North End Avenue flank where the Pac Rim restaurant and the Embassy Suites reception area used to be, Danny Meyer will be opening a fine dining restaurant, as yet unnamed.
On the second floor of the hotel itself will be yet another restaurant, run by the hotel but open to the public, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.
In addition to the retail and restaurant space in the 102 North End Avenue property, Goldman has been seeking tenants for 5,000 square feet of retail space in 200 West Street, opening onto the breezeway. Fusco said that the tenants under consideration include a dessert or bakery shop, an eyeglass store with an optometrist, a wine shop and a small, gourmet grocer.
Over the next months, these tenants will open their doors as the hotel itself is remodeled. By the winter of 2011, all should be complete.
