In the News: Big New Office Building on West Street

••• “The City Council has enacted a bill, sponsored by Margaret Chin, which will expand the zone surrounding the World Trade Center that is off limits to street vendors. […] While the expansion of the no-go sector for vendors has been controversial (especially among advocates for sellers of street food), it represents a compromise from the larger zone originally requested by the New York Police Department, which would have also ruled Zuccotti Park out of bounds.” —Broadsheet

••• Amazon “said it would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for all of its United States workers. It said the pay increase would include part-time workers and those hired through temporary agencies. The company said it would also lobby Washington to raise the federal minimum wage. Amazon said the new wages would apply to more than 250,000 Amazon employees, including those at the grocery chain Whole Foods, as well as the more than 100,000 seasonal employees it will hire for the holiday season. It goes into effect on Nov. 1.” This is great, of course, but $15 an hour is still hardly a living wage. —New York Times

••• Frankie Goes to Bollywood is opening at Spring and Sullivan (either today or next Wednesday; the New York Times is unclear): “In Mumbai, a frankie is street food, a flatbread, like a wrap or burrito, enclosing a filling. This compact Soho spot sells an array of them with lightly spiced choices like steak with creamed spinach curry, eggplant curry with cucumber raita, cauliflower and potato hash with cucumber raita, and crispy cod with coconut curry.”

••• “Oxford Properties Group […] has unveiled its redevelopment plans for the massive St. John’s Terminal [550 Washington], across from Pier 40, in the West Village. Oxford took over the southern portion of the St. John’s Terminal site from Westbrook Partners and Atlas Capital, for $700 million last fall. Initially, this portion of the site would also have seen the construction of a residential development and a hotel, but Oxford has decided to pursue an as-of-right office development. The project will now span 1.3 million square feet over stories 12 stories—the top floor of the existing four-story building will be removed, and Oxford will build a nine-story addition to the existing structure.” […] In the first phase of development, the overpass covering West Houston Street on the north side of the terminal building will be removed to expose the [railroad] tracks connecting the building to Hudson River Park, and the waterfront. […] Meanwhile, Atlas and Westbrook still plan to develop the northern portion of the site into housing, but the details on that are likely to have changed since the sale of the parcel at 550 Washington Street to Oxford.” —Curbed

 

4 Comments

  1. That new office building looks fantastic and make a lot more sense than the senior and other housing that was being proposed. Oxford knows what it is doing. Good for the neighborhood to bring more jobs. Keep it local, keep it cool downtown!!!!

    • Looks quite nice, but that is one rather massive and bulky building… glass makes it appear lighter than it truly is.

    • Another glass office building is better than senior & “other” housing? Really Phylis. My God, that is sad. Of course it is NOT better. We really don’t need yet another glass office building.

  2. Did anyone see some work happening at the old Payard spot on Murray? I didn’t manage to get a picture but looked like they had papered the windows and were power washing the facade this afternoon. I miss them…

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