By Patrick Hedlund
The owners of the massive St. John’s building near the Hudson Square waterfront are looking into building a hotel or luxury condominiums above its roof. Comments last week by St. John’s real estate director marked the first time in years property representatives hinted at future development along the superblock.
Richard Forte of Eugene M. Grant & Co., which owns the massive building at 550-570 Washington St., said the company could be interested in building a hotel on the property if The Related Companies’ current development proposal for an entertainment complex at the nearby Pier 40 is approved.
Related’s proposal would bolster Pier 40 as a “destination” area, Forte said, making it more desirable for the property owner to construct an as-of-right hotel on the St. John’s roof. “From a developer’s standpoint, I would think that it’s a pretty good partnership having Related do what they do,” he told Mixed Use.
Forte did acknowledge, however, that constructing residential condominiums instead of a hotel would not jibe with Related’s plan.
“It’s not an attraction, per se, [for residents]” he said of having Pier 40 become an entertainment and arts location.
Forte said the center currently has 300,000 developable square feet of air rights, which could accommodate condominiums located along “the most valuable real estate in Manhattan” – the waterfront.
He also acknowledged the major tax benefit to the city if residential properties were to go up and condemned a Sanitation Department proposal to add a 140-foot-tall garage just south of the site.
“Something’s got to give at this point,” Forte added. “There are a lot of different obstacles, but a lot of different options as well.”
Nothing’s strange in the Square More than 100 community members feted the first public display of the Envisioning Hudson Square design project last Friday at the St. John’s Center, which unveiled five architectural firms’ ambitious visions for the neighborhood.
Recorded sounds of birds and marine life squawked in the background as part of the presentation by Arquitectonica Geo, whose plans for incorporating the waterfront include salt harvesting, a bird rookery and mussel farms. Robert Rovira, the firm’s senior landscape architect, flew in from Miami for the event.
Marc Tsurumaki, a partner with LTL Architects, another of the firms, said that the renderings may look overly ambitious, but “in New York, truth tends to be stranger than fiction.”
“Stranger things have certainly happened,” added Peter A. Pelsinski, a partner with contributing firm SPaN.
Carole De Saram, chairperson of Community Board 1’s Tribeca Committee and president of the Tribeca Community Association, agreed that the seemingly “pie-in-the-sky” design represents the city’s architectural future.
“We have to think big, visionary and out of the box,” she said.
Fight for Merrill Recent reports of Downtown anchor Merrill Lynch relocating its headquarters to Midtown sent shockwaves through the Lower Manhattan community last week.
A host of Downtown officials, including Councilmember Alan Gerson and Downtown Alliance chairperson Robert Douglass, expressed disappointment and cited the company’s financial incentive for staying put in Lower Manhattan.
Community Board 1 chairperson Julie Menin also showed dismay, noting the impact on small business and glut of office space the move would create if Merrill decided to leave.
She questioned the brokerage’s “puzzling” Midtown proposal, which estimates have shown could cost the company an additional $1 billion. Incentives to build at the World Trade Center site alone stand at $600 million, reports indicate.
“I have these fundamental concerns about sweetening the pot when there’s already [incentives] on the table,” Menin said when asked if more should be offered to keep the company Downtown. “You’re talking about a far more costly move to that area, and an area that’s not that developed.”
Some reports have cast further doubt over the move after Merrill Lynch C.E.O. Stanley O’Neal’s ouster this week. O’Neal has longtime ties to Mayor Bloomberg, and The New York Times suggested last week that the city was less anxious to keep Merrill Downtown than the state.
Coach store on Bleecker Attention shoppers: If you plan on buying a high-end handbag from the just-opened Coach store at 372 Bleecker St., a portion of your purchase could be headed to the purse of local preservationists.
The upscale accessories chain, which inaugurated its newest Manhattan boutique last Friday, plans to donate a tenth of its proceeds from select purchases to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.
Raina Penchansky, Coach’s vice president of global communications, said it’s the company’s first time donating this way to a community group in New York City.
Andrew Berman, executive director of the G.V.S.H.P., said the built-in G.V.S.H.P. donation will be in effect through Dec. 1. “We’re very grateful for their thinking of us and their generosity.”
Berman noted that Coach’s donations would help his organization further efforts to preserve the diminishing mom-and-pop character of West Village stores — even though the retailer represents an exclusively upscale brand. He sees the contributions as a nod to the neighborhood’s history.
So, for select patrons looking to give back locally and add a $30,000 handbag to their wardrobes, G.V.S.H.P. is happy to accept your contribution.
MixedUse@communitymediallc.com
