Intel on the Next Big Building Coming to Northwest Tribeca

I love it when people send over juicy information.

This came in yesterday from someone who lives in northwest Tribeca: It’s the Department of Buildings paperwork for the new building going up at 460 Washington (at the northwest corner of Watts, and going through to West Street), filed just last week. That’s the plot—three plots, I suppose, since it incorporates 456 Washington and 281 West—where a beloved relic (above right), a less-loved warehouse (above left), and an already closed parking lot (right) currently exist. We’ve known for a while that something was coming—and that the existing buildings were unlikely to survive—and now we have a clearer idea.

What can be gleaned from the DOB filing:
••• It’ll be 10 stories, with 107 units total. According to Schedule A [PDF] the ground floor will have one apartment (for the super?), bike storage, “amenity spaces,” and parking; floors 2-6 will have 16 apartments; floors 7-8 will have 7 apartments; and floors 9-10 will have 6 apartments.
••• The ground floor will include retail.
••• There will be 25 parking spaces. Math time! 107 units + 25 parking spaces – a parking lot = more difficult street parking.
••• The “No yards” box is checked, so presumably this means that the building comes right up to the property line…?
••• The architect is Ismael Leyva Architects. He most recently popped up in Tribeca-related news in regard to 19 Park Place. According to his website, he also designed the floor plans of 101 Warren and Riverhouse and worked in some capacity on Tribeca Green.
••• The developer is Related, which also has Tribeca Green, Tribeca Park, Tribeca Tower, and 89 Murray in its portfolio. From my source (and I have not verified it): “In general Related tends to make very nice rental buildings—I have a few friends who just stick to Related properties, especially as it is very easy to give up a lease in one Related property and move to another (no fees or charges for breaking leases). Although the real problem is the Ponte insistence [Ponte Equities owns the land] on 100-year leases which means that there is less time for builders to recover their investment—which of course means less focus on higher-quality builds. As a comparison take a look at the two VE Equities properties [471 Washington and 290 West] and the Arman building [482 Greenwich]. They own their land and can spend the money because they hope to recoup it in terms of high price sales. […] The 100-year lease is to avoid long term capital gains—which I assume would be huge—so not a sale, but a lease… for 100 years… no tax… and basically almost a sale.”
••• Also from my source: “The good news: It’s poured concrete and not the cheapest concrete (precast) option like Truffles—which means build quality appearance and standards should be better. That is just my guess—but I know for a fact that poured is definitely more expensive than pre-cast.”

I called Ismael Leyva Architects to see if a rendering existed, and the answer was not yet. I left a message for Related’s media relations folks, who have not responded.

If anyone out there has more experience with these documents and can therefore deduce more than I have—or who simply knows more about the project—email tribecacitizen@gmail.com.

 

8 Comments

  1. 107 units? With how many bedrooms? Why on earth is any new construction getting approved down here when there aren’t enough school seats to meet current demand?

  2. Like many people I walk around wondering where we could put a new school. How come the World Trade Center doesn’t have school attached to it — or maybe instead of a performing arts center that space could be deployed as a school?

  3. The previous comments are pretty silly, IMO. There is no “school space shortage” in Lower Manhattan. There is only a space shortage directly in Tribeca/Financial District, which is logical, since those are some of the highest performing schools in the city.

    There are plenty of half-empty schools all over Lower Manhattan. They just aren’t in Tribeca. The city has already spent huge amounts building new schools all over the place, to appease the politically connected residents of Tribeca and environs.

    And there are already two new schools being built (Peck Slip and an upcoming school expansion), so the area is hardly being shortchanged going forward.

    Nothing wrong with advocacy for more schools, but geez.. The schools will be crowded because they’re good. You will never build your way out of popularity when it comes to good schools in a wealthy neighborhood.

  4. Enough with the annoying cry for more schools.

    There are other issues too.

    LIKE, making sure the facade of the existing building – it is NOT landmarked.

    Do you want another black box Truffles in area? Demand from developer that we get a quality design that reflects the existing area.

  5. >>instead of a performing arts center that space could be deployed as a school?

    Whoa there, sonny: hands off that performing arts center. We already lost one museum to a school on Battery Place (yes, it sounded like a dumb museum, but it could’ve done a turnaround).

    There is only one way to solve the school problem, which I have proposed elsewhere. It is free, it is fair, and it will be effective: school seats should be allotted to people in order of the length of their residency in a district (longest-term residents first). That way, people will be encouraged to stay in their own neighborhoods and work on improving the schools there, and will be discouraged from moving into a neighborhood because it has “better” schools, thereby driving out the very people who have worked to make the schools better.

    Then all the land-grabbing school builders can work on getting the PAC built after over 10 years of inaction.

  6. as for classroom seats, right NOW, there are TWO giant schools just south of the Trade Center that are used as high schools, BUT do not serve the neighboring community at all.

    We do not need to keep taking properties off the tax rolls for more classrooms.

    Use at least one of these schools for the community.

  7. How about putting a school on pier 40? certainly more needed than a mall? There’s plenty of those just across the river.
    I think that would be a pretty incredible concept.

  8. Bravo Hudson River and other commenters. We need a Performing Arts Center here. It is bad enough that it will probably be the last building completed on the campus and that will be far in the future. Like the annoying commercial says: I want my Performing Arts Center … and I want it NOW.