By Patrick Hedlund
Halfway there A pair of luxury Downtown developments with marquee names attached to the projects recently passed the halfway point for sales.
One York, the Enrique Norten-designed condo building on the Tribeca-Soho border, has sold just over 60 percent of its units since coming on the market in June. The 13-story, 36-unit building, located along Sixth Ave. between Laight and York Sts., still has two- and three-bedroom units available and expects to start closings in the spring, according to exclusive selling agent Brown Harris Stevens.
Prices for the available units run from $2.3 million for a 1,600 square-foot two-bedroom, two-bath unit on the third floor; to $8.5 million for a 2,326-square-foot three-bedroom, three-bath unit on the 11th floor. (Buyers can also couple the 11th floor unit with an adjacent 1,912-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bath unit on the floor for a total of $11 million.)
The William Beaver House, hotelier Andre Balazs’ amenity-stacked residential venture in the Financial District, has also sold 60 percent of its units since coming on the market last year. The 47-story, 320-unit building, at the corner of William and Beaver Sts., has all except its penthouse units available with mostly two- and three-bedrooms, said Caroline Grane, a sales agent with exclusive seller CORE Group Marketing, which took over sales in June.
Prices for the available units run from $935,000 for a 700-square-foot studio to $4 million for a 1,592-square-foot three-bedroom unit on the 46th floor. The average price per square foot for units in the building was $1,678, but that figure went all the way up to $3,512 per square foot for its trophy units, including the sale of the penthouse for $6 million.
The development includes such amenities as a cinema and private nightclub, covered outdoor park and garden, swimming and sports facilities, and a public penthouse on the top floor open to all residents.
Accessible Wall St. Smaller companies looking to make the big step up to Wall St. now have the opportunity to take space in a landmark Financial District building across from the Stock Exchange.
Availability was announced last week at 14 Wall St., the former Bankers Trust Company building whose pyramid-shaped roof has been a fixture of the Lower Manhattan skyline for nearly a century.
The “Suites at 14 Wall” come prebuilt and ready to move in, with space ranging from 2,100 to 8,300 square feet, according to building owners Capstone Equities and The Carlyle Group. Prices for the space range from $44 to $46 per square foot, said Daniel Ghadamian, principal at Capstone.
South Village support A group of about 200 preservationists turned up at Our Lady of Pompei Church on Monday night to strategize for the designation of the South Village Historic District — the former stomping ground of beatniks, bohemians and Bob Dylan.
The meeting, co-sponsored by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and Community Board 2, looked forward to realizing the designation of the triangular-shaped district, which extends south to Watts St. in part of Soho.
C.B. 2 has strongly endorsed the proposal, and both Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Assemblymember Deborah Glick showed support for the designation at the meeting.
The district has received broad support from local businesses, block associations, elected officials and neighborhood tenant New York University, with no expressed opposition, said Andrew Berman, G.V.S.H.P.’s director. Attendees promised to seek out anyone not on the list to ask them aboard.
G.V.S.H.P. will continue writing the mayor and Landmarks Preservation Commission, after first applying for the designation last year.
Already abutting the proposed area is the Greenwich Village Historic District, the Soho Cast-Iron Historic District and the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District, while the South Village has been left blowin’ in the wind.
Harassment hearing A postponed City Council hearing to address issues of tenant harassment has been rescheduled for this coming Mon., Dec. 17, according to Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s Office.
The Council decided to move the Dec. 6 hearing because of a prior scheduling conflict, said Quinn spokesperson Andrew Doba, plus the original date for the hearing also fell on the same day as a meeting regarding illegal hotel conversions.
C.B. 2 member Doris Diether originally alerted Mixed Use of the double bill, which would have taken on two increasing concerns facing city residents on the same day. She also complained that the hearing was poorly advertised to the public, although Downtown Express notified readers last week in an article spotlighting the problem.
Tenant activist Susi Schropp agreed that the original event wasn’t publicized enough and expressed doubt the hearing would accomplish much.
“I’m really skeptical about how successful it will be,” she said, adding the 10 a.m. start time cuts into tenants’ work schedules. “We need new laws and better enforcement of the laws.… It’s riddled with loopholes.”
Doba said the issue continues to be a pressing one for Quinn.
“The tenant harassment bill remains a high priority for the speaker,” he said.
NYCHA keen on green It seems going green is no longer a trend reserved for upscale developers, as the New York City Housing Authority recently announced an initiative aimed at outfitting its 2,600-plus buildings with energy-efficient technologies.
NYCHA, partnering with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, former President Bill Clinton and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, announced its sustainability plan last week to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and conserve energy through green retrofitting.
The authority will gain access to low-cost, energy-saving technology and resources through a purchasing consortium aided by the former president’s Clinton Climate Initiative. The comprehensive plan seeks to provide building retrofits as well as modernized heating systems to help access cleaner energy and reduce emissions. The plan includes revisions to buildings’ heat and hot-water systems and upgrades to apartment and common-area lighting fixtures.
The program falls in line with the goals sought by Bloomberg’s PlaNYC proposal to reduce carbon emissions, as well as a recent City Council measure passed to the same effect.
“This is a step in the right direction in the fight against climate change that will reduce New York City’s carbon footprint, while saving money for taxpayers and residents at the same time,” Clinton said in statement.
Turns out it is easy being green.
mixeduse@communitymediallc.com
