Credit Steven Harris Architects

UPDATE: Running this again with a lot more renderings and a better analysis from CB1’s Land Use Committee review.

Community Board 1 reviewed zoning changes for residential conversion for 250 Church last night — as well as increased height and bulk and the addition of accessory parking — to create a 21-story, 314-foot (including mechanicals), 72-unit condo. The proposal still has to go before the full board before it goes on to the Department of City Planning.

The Land Use Committee showed some support, but took issue with the following:

• The site was downzoned in 1995 to a C6-2A allowing for 125-foot building height, or 145 feet if it included affordable housing, and this proposal is more than double that size. (“Without this additional height, this conversion would not be feasible,” the developer’s rep said.)
• The proposal allows for no affordable units.
• The shadow studies for the proposed building show an impact on Finn Square.
• The proposal has retail along 50 percent of its stretch of Church — part of it will be the building’s private gym. The community board wants that to be entirely retail to engage with the public.

The community board wanted to know how the developer would improve nearby public spaces — Barnett Newman Triangle and Finn Square — as part of any exchange for increased bulk and height. However the developer didn’t have that answer — yet?  (If the city is to approve the zoning change, it will take into consideration the impact on light and air on the streets and surrounding spaces and buildings, as well as whether the proposal is “harmonious” with the neighborhood.)

The developers did promise to open a line of communication and engage in the process — they said they want to contribute to the neighborhood. “It benefits us if they neighborhood has more green space, more open space,” they said.

(*NB: this same situation came up with 100 Franklin, where the developers were given an extra floor in exchange for making improvements to Barnett Newman. That never happened.)

The architect is longtime (nearly 50 years) Tribecan Steven Harris, who provided the first look at Community Board 1’s Land Use Committee.

“One of the great joys of Tribeca is the life of the street, and we have worked very hard to give a certain character and recall certain tropes that you would find in Tribeca,” he said at the CB1 meeting. “I think Tribeca is principally a masonry neighborhood –the majority of the buildings are brick or stone. They have punched windows that are inordinately large.” (He sited the Bazzini building and 90 West Broadway.) He also wants to echo the awnings around the neighborhood.

Harris designed 7 Harrison, where he once lived, as well as several Tribeca apartments (including his own) and probably most relevant to this assignment, 109 East 79th Street, an 18-story condo.

Credit Steven Harris Architects

If approved by City Planning, the new building will rise 314 feet including mechanicals — another 107 feet above the current structure. The developers are Skylight Real Estate Partners, Cannon Hill Capital Partners, and TPG, and the architect of record is Hill West Architects. The build year is 2029.

The current 1948 building — which has already been disassembled since it was sold originally in 2019 — is 207 feet tall with an 11-story base and another six stories after the setback. It goes back 60 feet on the Leonard Street side and 76 feet on the Franklin side, with 205,000 square feet. It sits right outside both the Tribeca East and Tribeca West historic districts.

Credit Steven Harris Architects

The proposed actions would allow the height of the building to reach 261 feet — 314 with bulkhead — from the current 207 feet. There would be a larger courtyard in the back to allow for light and air for bedrooms. The proposal also adds 15 accessory, self-automated parking spaces. There would be 2600 square feet of retail. The units would all be market-rate.

The northern portion of the base would rise to 11 stories and the southern portion would rise to 15 stories. Above the base, the building would be set back 10 feet from Church Street and 15 feet from both Leonard Street and Franklin Street before rising to the full proposed height of 21 stories.

Credit Steven Harris Architects

Credit Steven Harris Architects