By Patrick Hedlund
Truffle tidbits
Details surrounding the Jack Parker Corporation’s contentious North Tribeca venture have been slow to emerge, so it’s fitting the project is named for a hard-to-find delicacy.
Truffles, Parker’s 290-unit rental project at Washington and Watts Sts., will include a mix of studios through three-bedrooms and includes amenities ranging from a sundeck to a fitness and entertainment center.
Although the building has already topped off, no renderings have been released, and the project’s Web site feature only a few short films and a note that the private club’s 18th century “opium bed” has yet to arrive from Shanghai. Back in the spring, a mysterious Edward Albee quote affixed to the building’s facade—“You gotta have swine to show you where the truffles are”—was some of the only information being offered about the project.
Confused? A spokesperson for Parker, Marisa Zafran, said more information will become available in December before the leasing office opens in January, but she did note that “the building is very much the lifestyle of Tribeca.”
“This building is the first of its kind,” Zafran added. “Tribeca is much more condo-heavy, with old buildings that have been renovated. This is a ground-up, brand-new building on the water in Tribeca, and a rental. That doesn’t exist really in Tribeca right now.”
Downtown reeling
You know the commercial real estate market is in for some unpredictable times when the usually vanilla local market reports start out with phrases like “uncharted territory.”
According to brokerage CB Richard Ellis’s August office report, leasing activity in Lower Manhattan is off by nearly three-quarters its monthly average, with some Downtown submarkets showing substantial decreases attributable to the weakening economy.
The Downtown study area — comprised of the Financial District, City Hall and World Financial Center — inked a total of 130,000 square feet of leases in August, down 71 percent from its five-year monthly average of 450,000 square feet. That figure dropped from 320,000 total square feet of signings the month prior, with the City Hall and World Financial Center submarkets combining for just 10,000 total square feet in August. The Financial District’s 120,000 square feet of leasing activity was still down 61 percent from its monthly average of nearly 310,000 square feet, according to the report.
Overall leasing activity Downtown for the year to date sits at 2.34 million square feet, 21 percent behind its August 2007 total of 2.98 million square feet.
The Midtown South submarkets of Hudson Square/Tribeca and Noho/Soho produced 20,000 and 10,000 square feet of leasing activity, respectively, down 71 percent and 50 percent their monthly averages.
Bush tenement
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum can boast the nation’s highest honor for a museum with the announcement this week that it had been awarded this year’s National Medal for Museum and Library Service.
First Lady Laura Bush will confer the honor on the Tenement Museum — along with a group of other museums and libraries across the nation receiving recognition by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services — at an Oct. 7 White House ceremony.
The institute awards the National Medal for outstanding community outreach programs. The Tenement Museum was cited for its “Shared Journeys” program, which encourages students learning English to recount their own experiences as immigrants after taking tours of the museum; its “Kitchen Conversations” initiative, which asks participants to share their thoughts on the country’s immigration issues; and its part in creating the book “The New York Times Guide for Immigrants in New York City.”
This is the second year that I.M.L.S. has honored 10 institutions, previously only awarding medals to three museums and three libraries.
“We’re really delighted,” said Renne Epps, Tenement Museum executive vice president, whose institution will also receive $10,000 as part of the award. Most recently, back in May, the Tenement Museum helped lobby for the neighborhood’s inclusion on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.”
Boxed in
Lower East Side burlesque boite The Box, which has been getting battered recently with barbs from the community, earned a reprieve from Community Board 3 last week when the full board voted to postpone its decision on the club’s liquor license renewal until next month’s meeting.
The popular yet contentious nightclub has received a litany of complaints from nearby residents regarding noise and traffic emanating from its 189 Chrystie St. address, and Board 3’s Licensing Committee voted unanimously to turn down The Box’s request for a liquor license renewal on Sept. 14.
However, the board decided to table its final decision on its advisory recommendation at last week’s full board meeting until October’s committee meeting, giving the beleaguered nightspot more time to clean up its act.
C.B. 3 District Manager Susan Stetzer said The Box’s ownership has been reaching out to the board and residents for months to resolve outstanding issues, and that the club has “spent a lot of money and done a lot of work” to remedy these problems.
“What I believe they’re going to try to do is come to some kind of written agreement of what The Box will be responsible for,” she said of negotiations among the concerned parties. “If they resolve this and come to the committee meeting with an agreement,” the committee would likely recommend the renewal if the club adheres to a list of agreed-upon stipulations. But, she added, “Whether it is enough is something only the residents can say.”
Street fighter
Apparently Mike Bloomberg isn’t much a fan of expensive gyros and cheap sunglasses, as the mayor acknowledged last week that the city’s ubiquitous street fairs are generic and unnecessary.
Bloomberg cited the fairs at a town-hall meeting in response to a question about why the “Summer Streets” initiative that closed down portions of Manhattan’s main drags to vehicular traffic were held on Saturdays instead of Sundays: “I think we have too many street fairs,” he said, according to the New York Post, noting they were a common Sunday occurrence.
“Street fairs supposedly help communities by giving a lot of money,” he added. “I don’t think you can ever find a dime that they ever got from them. They’re supposed to do unique things. They’re all the same.”
However, Bloomberg said he won’t wage war on the city’s 350-some yearly fairs, choosing instead to focus on bigger issues, like fixing the school system. According to the Post, the city collects 20 percent of vendors’ fees for street fairs that occupy more than a block, which last year totaled $1.6 million.
mixeduse@communitymediallc.com
