In January, I repeated the rumor that there would be two new buildings on the block bordered by West, Washington, Desbrosses, and Vestry. According to a post today on the Real Deal, the block is indeed being divided in half—into into western and eastern parts, to be precise:

Related Companies purchased a six-parcel development site in Tribeca from long-time owner, Ponte Equities, for $115.3 million. The commercial and residential developer closed on the deal for 264-270 West Street and 33-35 Desbrosses Street last week, city records filed today show. The assemblage includes the location of the now-shuttered Ponte family restaurant that had an address of 39 Desbrosses. The parcels comprise the western portion of the block bounded by West, Washington, Desbrosses and Vestry streets. The buildings have at least 171,769 square feet of development rights, according to data on PropertyShark. Insiders said the true air rights could be higher.

Selling is a big step for Ponte, which prefers to lease (as in the case of its partnership with Related at 460 Washington). One major reason Ponte couldn’t do a deal for the whole block was because Corice Arman is refusing to sell the midblock 428-430 Washington; another is that Ponte has been sued by the residents of 31 Desbrosses (at the southwest corner of Washington). What I can’t tell is whether the Related deal leaves enough of the middle of the block for someone to wrap a building around 428-430 Washington, presuming the 31 Desbrosses lawsuit gets settled.

Pix of the buildings on the western half:

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