Construction starting on the former garage on N. Moore?

The former parking garage at 56 N. Moore, between Greenwich and Hudson, has been emptied of cars and is moving forward, according to the Tribeca architecture team — ODA — that did the design pre-pandemic. (Thanks to Robert Ripps for the pics.)

You can read more here, but the short answer is a boutique office that restores the building and adds a three-story rooftop addition to the 100-year-old building. Last we checked, the Landmarks Preservation Commission had given a provisional approval; there was still some work to be done to make sure the addition’s railing on the parapet wall was set back far enough to not be seen from the street. (This is the heart of the Tribeca West Historic District.)

The building is being designed by Eran Chen of ODA, the architects who did 15 Renwick, 5 Franklin Place, The James Hotel and tons of others; it will be called The Garage; and the project will restore the utilitarian brick façade, quirky parapet and huge wooden windows. The developer is Metroloft and I believe they are hoping to find a single tenant.

 
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19 Comments

  1. I like the addition and hope this turns out well. I’m not sure the neighborhood really needs more commercial space, I would have preferred a residential conversion. But this city should be for people, not cars, and any conversion from parking is a win in my book.

    • Amen!

      Here’s to the remaining surface parking lots in TriBeCa becoming residential/retail developments. Hard to believe that any surface parking lots still exist in a place as dense/expensive as Manhattan.

  2. Been waiting for this one to start. Great design & project.

  3. Holland Tunnel traffic feeding from N Moore is already a nightmare. This construction is going to make it exponentially worse.

  4. My understanding is that parking lot sold it’s air rights long ago; only have a remaining FAR of 1.0, so not much development-wise is going to pencil out there unless there is some additional upzoning in the area (highly unlikely).

  5. Memory of the voice of car haters coming to defend the illegal occupation of sidewalk and streets of outdoor dining sheds is still fresh, would they agree an indoor garage is also an offense? The city has lost so many service buildings in the last decades to condos and office buildings, mostly unaffordable. This is nothing different, another real estate scheme.

  6. Car hater here. I have no beef with unsubsidized parking garages. I wonder what the market-clearing rate would be for, say, Tahoe or Denali SUV’s. $1,000 a month? I’ve no idea if that would suffice and whether owners would pay.

  7. All of you car haters should be concentrating on improving mass transit to this city. Please don’t forget everyone can not afford to walk to work, and I bet most of you own cars that you use to tie up traffic on weekends.

    • @Karen: If you’re unaware that the movement to fund, watchdog, expand and improve NYC mass transit is heavily populated by anti-car advocates, you haven’t been paying attention. And, since you asked: speaking as a resolute car hater, no, I don’t own a car. For my half-dozen trips a year to the Adirondacks, where I have a cabin, I rent, sometimes biking to LaGuardia (cheaper rates) to pick up a vehicle.

  8. Great design and repurposing of this building!

  9. In 1977 this building was offered for sale for $550k.

  10. Mr. Komanoff,
    On a related topic, perhaps you’d know…

    Why have Transportation Alternatives and bicycling advocacy organizations supported “Open Streets “ on avenues which force bus rerouting?
    Why do these entities support action that sacrifices essential mass transit? Especially mass transit that is needed by elderly, people with health or mobility issues?

    • @Jen — Is the bus rerouting you decry a large-scale matter or a unicorn or something in-between? f you can be more specific I can check with TransAlt and Riders Alliance and report back. Thanks.

    • @Jen —
      Data first: I checked around and learned that of the more than s hundred Open Streets that were active at the end of 2021, only two — Vanderbilt Ave & 5th Ave, in Brooklyn — had bus routes that had to be altered. So let’s be clear that bus rerouting for Open Streets has been rare. (The new, touted 34th Ave Open Street in Queens isn’t a bus route, for example.)
      You may think even two is two many. I urge you to reconsider.
      Restaurants, a huge part of NYC’s economy (jobs, tax receipts) and distinctiveness, depended on Open Streets during Covid; some still do, evidently.
      As you may know, NYCDOT requires any Open Street to have a 15 foot-wide clearance lane to easily allow passage for buses and emergency vehicles. So except for that handful (or less) of avenues, neither transit nor emergency response should have been affected.
      I believe underpriced car use is bad for NYC, so I’m for practically any street repurposing that makes free curbside parking more difficult and rare. I take it you’re not. But bus rerouting looks like a pretty thin basis to oppose Open Streets.

  11. Hi,
    Segments of Amsterdam Ave and Columbus Ave in Manhattan have been designated as “open streets” on weekends approximately spring-fall which means diversion of M7 and M11. On some weekends when there were other avenue closures for charity runs/street fairs etc, there was no accessible bus service.

    I believe segments of Sixth Ave in lower Manhattan as well. There are others too.

    Honestly I am shocked and saddened that anyone involved in transportation would think that bus mass transit is not a priority. I guess you don’t take the bus nor are a caregiver for anyone who is elderly, with health issues etc.
    I guess there is no point in me discussing further.

  12. I too am concerned about worsening bus service and lack of bus access due to closed streets aka “open streets”. It is outrageous that NYC has done this. Who would have ever imagined that NYC would sacrifice bus transportation?
    Originally I thought Transportation Alternatives was about subways and buses but I have come to learn they only care about bicycling.

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