By Lincoln Anderson
On the site of a current car wash and gas station underneath the High Line at 14th St. and Tenth Ave., plans are to create a new, 33,000-square-foot, all-glass-enclosed retail space, as pictured in the rendering at right. A new basement will be dug out, and the tenant can keep the look of the High Line’s riveted supports, which will run through the space, or cover them up, said broker Richard Skulnik of Ripco real estate. The site is outside of the Gansevoort Historic District, so doesn’t have any landmark design restrictions. The new space should be completed by January 2012, Skuknik said.
Meanwhile, Novac Noury, the former “Arrow Keyboard Man” of Studio 54 back in the disco days, is moving ahead with his plans for a unique mini-inn on his property at Little W. 12th St. and Washington St., just south of Andre Balazs’s new Standard Hotel. On Monday, Noury said he had just met with potential development partners from Beck Street Capital. Under Noury’s concept, a schematic of which is shown below, the building would feature a “four-story-tall hull” evoking the Titanic, whose survivors were dropped off at nearby Pier 54 on W. 13th St. after the disaster. “It almost looks like the QE2 — it will be as of right,” Noury said. The project will also feature a waterfall “at least 30 or 40 feet high,” he added.
