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Robert Ripps book
History of Tribeca Buildings
Huge Residential Conversion on Church Street
“After debuting fancy renovation plans with renderings of aspirational young tenants playing beer pong at the office well into the night”—nicely said, Real Deal—”the owner of a Tribeca commercial building decided they don’t want people to play drinking games with their coworkers there after all. Instead, Norvin Properties filed plans with the city Wednesday to convert the 15-story office building at 250 Church Street into a 107-unit residential property.” Two floors will be added to the top, and the exterior will presumably be changed somehow—but there’s no indication that the plans released in early 2016 will be used for the conversion. In fact, the architect of record (Handel Architects) is different. Handel had a hand in several projects around here: the 9/11 Memorial, 37 Warren, 255 Hudson, 505 Greenwich, Truffles Tribeca….
That’s going to be three construction projects—four, if 56 Leonard keeps taking its sweet time—in a three-block span: 250 Church, 100 Franklin, and 14 White. Further south on Church, there are two more: 30 Warren and 108 Chambers. And of course the Worth Street reconstruction. It truly never ends.
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The greed never ends
With the recent losses of Pakistan Tea House & Roc along with these ridiculous and endless “conversions”, TriBeCa is no more. Welcome to the relocation of the Upper East Side.
Does anyone care about how the neighborhood’s public infrastructure will, or won’t support these developments–schools, parks, transportation. Still no one seems to care.
I couldn’t agree more with these readers’ comments. The infrastructure is not there to support all these new apartments/residents. And it is so sad to watch all the mom & pop shops and restaurants closing that help to make the neighborhood a wonderful community.
Geniunely curious – do most tribeca (even renting) level incomes send their kids to public school?
It’s mixed. At our preschool, 40% go to public, 60% to private.
We will need more nail salons.
post of the year
made me laugh out loud.
Haha. Bob
I’m not liking what is happening in Tribeca. Restaurants dropping like flies and the only tenants who can afford it are big box retailers or banks. And then you trip over a double wide stroller every five minutes if you don’t keep your eyes on the sidewalk. (Don’t kill parentals—it’s true.).
This has been happening for years and years. While there is no holding back progress (i.e. greed), and while some change has been good (PS234, landmarking large sections of Tribeca, or Best Food instead of the Food Emporium- and of course someone will disagree with any examples I pick, so feel free to insert your own), overall the rush to over develop, to built as tall as possible on any and all scraps of land including strangely shaped former parking lots has gotten totally out of hand.
This is largely a byproduct of the greed of our politicians, who have sold their souls to the real estate industry, which largely funds their campaigns, and which has led to a huge increase in new oversize glass sided towers, in overdevelopment in relation to existing infrastructure like schools and public transportation, in traffic, in noise and trash on the streets, in rents for residential and business spaces, which in our neighborhood is manifested by the huge number of vacant storefronts, and business turnovers.
And, this unbridled over development and destruction of neighborhoods is happening not just in Manhattan, but now in parts of downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City Queens, and will likely spread from there. This over development favors out of scale buildings for the rich and ultra rich over a human scaled, livable city for the average citizen, many of which are forced to live on the far edges of outer boroughs, or move to another city (or event state) just to be able to afford to live.
The future of our city is being sold, and the sub basement lap pools dug into the roots of our beautiful and historic past, and we the inhabitants of this city, are the ultimate losers.
What can you do? Make your voice heard- demand that your local politicians explain why they are so pro development. Ask if they would support up zoning if it was in their own, landmarked home neighborhood. Go to protests. Write letters. Sign petitions. Join preservation groups like Tribeca Trust. Support your local stores and merchants instead of buying everything online from large corporations, or frequenting chain stores. Vote for politicians who appreciate the historic, culturally diverse, and sometimes even a bit messy nature of New York.
None of this will stop the strip mining of New York, but it can help slow it down, make the gulf between the world of the ultra rich and the average resident smaller.
And hopefully, forward thinking and respectful regulations and urban planning will lead to more community based, human scaled, progressive changes that can be actual improvements to neighborhoods, while allowing reasonable development providing affordable housing to all of its citizens, not just a select few (many of whom are not even citizens, but foreign investors).
thank you robert.
well said. we need to remind all our neighbors that the ” lovely town” they moved into is not a movie set. it takes work and commitment to preserve, protect and defend.
Good ideas, Robert. Back in the day (1970s and 1980s) when CB 1 had more local
residents who were moms and dads and not real estate wheelers and dealers, and when we had more Fed regulations that required that developers HAD to include a public amenity along with most
developments (so we could horse trade a park or school or community center for extra floors or a high rise), Tribeca had leverage. We created Wash Mkt Park even though it was supposed to be BMCC’s Parking lot. That has largely gone as $ absent condo ownership gives the area less of a commitment in what”s happening. Our voter turnout is AWFUL. My Club Downtown Progressive Dems has a tough time finding locals who we can actually register. But we plan to be out there. PLEASE keep your registration up to date! Get involved , come to CB 1 meetings, VOTE. Bitch when necessary. But be heard. If you are a small business, please join our newest group: Tribeca Alliance Partnership. We have a
neat website. We’ll be at Tribeca Film Festival Family Day April 27.
Residents did everything they could in the case of 100 Franklin. The Mayor’s affiliate got a donation of $10,000 from a DDG affiliate 8 days after DDG got a zoning variance worth $ 7 million from the Board of Standards and Appeals, according to the NY Daily News. All the residents got was a promise for a spruced up traffic island.
Elected officials are noticing – State Assembly Member Deborah Glick introduced a bill (A3378) that was approved by the community board 1 and 2 that would require Real Estate residential conversations/development to pay fees towards building new schools….it is a start and it has to catch on city wide.