[NYguy]

From The Real Deal...


4 Albany Street

Developer Joseph Moinian is expected to start laying the foundation soon for a soaring hotel and condo building on the vacant site. The tower will be 468 feet high – the equivalent of a 46-story residential building – and have 38 floors, according to a plan recently filed with the city Department of Buildings, the Daily News reported. There will be 77 apartments on the top 11 stories, and 232 hotel rooms on the floors below.

[STERNyc]

According to the NYSUN and Lowermanhattan.info this building will have 53 storeys.

Additionally the architect is Gwathmey Siegel and construction is supposendly set to start before the new year.

Silverstein Faces Some Competition For Liberty Bonds

BY DAVID LOMBINO - Staff Reporter of the Sun
December 9, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/24196

Developer Larry Silverstein has some serious competition for the tax-exempt Liberty Bonds he wants to use to rebuild the World Trade Center site - in the form of an application from developer Joseph Moinian for $147 million in tax-exempt bonds to build a 53-story, mixed-use hotel and residential condominium tower about a block south of ground zero.

Mr. Moinian's $240 million project, which includes 440,000 square feet, 220 hotel rooms, and 180 residential condo units, appears to fall more in line with Mayor Bloomberg's vision for more mixed-use development in Lower Manhattan. Construction is ready to begin immediately and could be completed by 2007, according to Mr. Moinian.

The address of the Moinian building would be 123 Washington St., now an empty lot. The site, adjacent to the Deutsche Bank building now being dismantled, was affected by the September 11, 2001, attacks but not as severely as the Silverstein site.

Andrew Alper, the president of the city's Industrial Development Agency, the agency that distributes the bonds, indicated that the city, state, and Mr. Moinian have discussed $50 million in bonds, considerably less than the developer's original proposal. The bonds would essentially finance the hotel portion of the development. Should Mr. Moinian not receive the bonds, the project will be built as luxury condos.

Yesterday, Mr. Moinian, whose firm says it already controls 14 million square feet of Manhattan real estate, said his application was not intended to compete with the redevelopment of ground zero. "I want nothing more than to see Silverstein succeed in developing the World Trade Center site, I have no doubt that he will get this done. My request has been to add to and complement the site, Silverstein's project, and to the heart of Lower Manhattan, bringing a beautiful structure and a first class hotel to the area, including permanent jobs."

Both developers' Liberty Bond applications were submitted in April. Mr. Moinian's bonds could come out of Mr. Silverstein's request for all $3.35 billion remaining of the Liberty Bonds that were authorized by Congress after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Yesterday the city held a public hearing over Mr. Silverstein's application to use all of the remaining Liberty Bonds to replace the 10 million square feet of commercial office that was lost when the World Trade Center was destroyed. The financing from the bonds would supplement insurance proceeds from the terrorist attacks that could amount to $4.65 billion.

Mr. Alper yesterday said that the city would negotiate over the weekend with Mr. Silverstein, with the goal of settling on the terms and conditions of a bond allocation before a potential vote on Tuesday. "We don't have many disagreements with Larry Silverstein," he said.

In an effort to add more flexibility to a long-term deal and hedge some of the risk from depleting the entire Liberty Bond arsenal, Mr. Alper said the city is trying to add "claw-backs" that would allow the city to take back the bonds and redistribute the tax-exempt financing to other development projects if certain construction benchmarks are not met.

Mr. Alper noted that one potential future use for the bonds was to help develop a retail component at ground zero, a task that belongs to the Port Authority, but no application has been filed. He also said the city wanted to make sure that Mr. Silverstein's developer's fee is not "too excessive."

Yesterday the senior vice president of Silverstein's World Trade Center Properties, John Lieber, downplayed the differences between the city and the developer. "The big issue has been resolved. The city wanted a commitment to an aggressive schedule and we agreed," Mr. Lieber said. He said the savings in finance costs generated from the Liberty Bonds would permit the developer to build the project "as fast as engineering can allow."

Yesterday's public hearing over Mr. Silverstein's application lasted nearly two hours and contained passionate testimony both for and against Mr. Silverstein's proposal. More than 20 civic leaders and private citizens used a variety of economic, political, moral, and logistical arguments to try to influence the board members of the IDA in advance of its vote. The co-chair of Battery Park City United, David Stanke, said the mayor's suggestion of taking control of the site from Mr. Silverstein "feels like eminent domain - taking the rights of a private developer and giving it back to the government."

The chairman of the West Street Coalition, John Dellaportas, said it was immoral to use the Liberty Bonds for any purpose other than "filling that hole." He said that the city was unfit to tell a private developer how he should spend his money. "History will record that Osama bin Laden destroyed the World Trade Center and Michael Bloomberg kept it from being rebuilt," he said.

If the vote on the bonds is delayed beyond the scheduled meeting Tuesday, a resolution may have to wait until regularly scheduled monthly board meetings in January, February or beyond.

[NYguy]

53 stories now. I wonder if that means 53 stories or 530 feet...

[NYguy]

Site of the planned residential tower...

DECEMBER 11, 2005

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/53510394/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/53510401/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/53510397.jpg

[Jularc]

Moinian Group plans condo tower near Ground Zero


http://www.cityrealty.com/graphics/uploads/1135198305_123washa.gif


21-DEC-05

The Moinian Group is hoping to build a 53-story mixed-use tower one block south of Ground Zero at 123 Washington Street that would include 180 residential condominium apartments and 220 hotel rooms.

It applied to the New York Industrial Development Agency last April for $147 million in Liberty Bonds for the project.

Daphne Mayer Viders, a spokesperson for the Moinian Group, told CityRealty.Com today that the application is still pending and that a decision from the agency is expected soon.

Ms. Viders indicated that if the funding from the agency is not forthcoming, the developer plans to proceed with a hotel component, but she added that the configuration of the project might be reduced.

The agency has also received an application from the Silverstein Group for all of the available Liberty Bond financing for his redevelopment of the former World Trade Center site and recently Governor Pataki said that at least half of it would go to Mr. Silverstein’s project.

Mr. Silverstein recently announced that Sir Norman Foster would design a second commercial tower at the site where the Freedom Tower is planned.

In a statement released by the Moinian Group, Joseph Moinian, the group’s chief executive officer, declared that he wants “nothing more than to see Larry Silverstein and Silverstein Properties succeed in developing the World Trade Center site,” adding that he had “no doubt that he will get this done.”

He noted that Lower Manhattan currently has only 2,500 hotel rooms and “desperately needs additional hotel rooms.”

The Moinian project, now in excavation, is adjacent to the south side of the former Deutsche Bank Building, which is in the process of being demolished. The Deutsche Bank skyscraper was severely damaged in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 that demolished the World Trade Center.

The hotel portion of the Moinian project will occupy the lower 25 floors of the planned 53-story building, which is being designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates.

Ms. Viders said that the $240 million project is ready to start and could be completed in 2007. Tishman Construction is committed to the construction of the building. The Singer & Bassuk Organization is providing financial consultation with additional funding backed by Starwood Capital.


Copyright © 1994-2005 CITY REALTY

[Jularc]

We need to change the title... It is 53 storeys, not 38.

[Swede]

^Done!

Great rendering too, tho compared to the new WTC towers it won't seem anywhere near that tall.

[Spooky873]

whats up with beekman tower? all these buildings in downtown i keep hearing about, including the wtc obviously, and downtown is totally transformed in a few years.

[Antares41]

If they get the Liberty Bonds looks like this building with 15 additional sotires will be well over 600 ft. based on my quick estimation.

[NYguy]

If they get the Liberty Bonds looks like this building with 15 additional sotires will be well over 600 ft. based on my quick estimation.

Maybe not quite 600 ft, but its a good addition...

[Jularc]

W hotel on Washington won’t be as easy as 1, 2, 3


http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_138/w.gif


By Ronda Kaysen
Downtown Express
Volume 18 • Issue 33 | Dec. 30 - Jan. 5, 2005

Larry Silverstein isn’t the only developer Downtown eyeing the remaining tax-exempt Liberty Bonds for the World Trade Center redevelopment. Another Lower Manhattan heavyweight bid for a chunk of the bonds to finance a hotel and condo project a few blocks south of the World Trade Center site, and the city appears interested in his proposal.

Developer Joseph Moinian applied for $147 million in tax-exempt bonds for a 53-story W Hotel and residential condominium at 123 Washington St. The $240 million development includes 220 hotel rooms and 180 residential condo units. The bonds would be used for the hotel portion of the building.

The property, formerly 4 Albany St., is currently an empty lot, since a 9/11 damaged building there was removed earlier this year to make way for the new development.

The city is considering giving Moinian $50 million in Liberty Bonds for the project. “It’s a good use. It’s a project that would start right away,” said Andrew Alper, president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation and chairperson of the Industrial Development Agency, which decides on the city’s Liberty Bond applications.

But Silverstein, the leaseholder for the World Trade Center site, has been pleading his case for the remaining pot of Liberty Bonds. $3.35 billion in triple-tax free Liberty Bonds remain for commercial use. Earlier this month, Governor George Pataki tapped $1.67 billion for Silverstein. Silverstein maintains he needs all the remaining bonds to finance the build out of the Trade Center.

“Financing certainty on this entire project is going to expedite this entire project,” Janno Lieber, Silverstein’s senior vice president, told Downtown Express earlier this month.

The $50 million that may go to 123 Washington represents a small percentage of Silverstein’s bond application and it is unclear how vigorously the W.T.C. developer is opposing it. Silverstein declined to comment for this story.

Moinian is a major player Downtown. His company, the Moinian Group, owns Goldman Sachs’ office at 180 Maiden Lane, as well as 100 John St., 90 John St., 17 Battery Place and 20 West St., a condo conversion. Moinian was the first developer to use Liberty Bonds for a residential conversion when he transformed 90 Washington St. into a luxury rental building.

He insists his project will not obstruct Silverstein’s goals. “I want nothing more than to see Larry Silverstein and Silverstein Properties succeed in developing the World Trade Center site,” he said in a statement. “I have no doubt that he will get this done.”

The hotel will occupy the lower 25 floors of the Gwathmey Siegel-designed tower, and include meeting rooms, an ancillary spa and fitness center, a high-end restaurant and lounge and a sky lobby. It is expected to open at the end of 2007.

Moinian purchased 123 Washington St. from Deutsche Bank when it was still 4 Albany St. The original structure was demolished as part of the sale agreement. Another formerly Deutsche Bank-owned, contaminated building, 130 Liberty St., is located across the street from 123 Washington and is also being demolished to make way for redevelopment.

[NYguy]

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_138/w.gif


Not bad. It could be worse. I like that it's slender.

[Antares41]

Yeah! kinda has same dimensions as the Hilton Millenium Hotel across from the FT construction, perhaps a similar height also.

[NYguy]

Yeah! kinda has same dimensions as the Hilton Millenium Hotel across from the FT construction, perhaps a similar height also.


I was thinking the same thing when I saw this:

http://www.cityrealty.com/graphics/uploads/1135198305_123washa.gif


Here's the Millenium on the skyline (left)...

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/53510006/medium.jpg

[Antares41]

From the rendering it looks like it will have a stone and glass facade so that should differentiate it from the Millenium somewhat, but I like what I see thusfar, perhaps it even better than I expected.

[NYguy]

From the rendering it looks like it will have a stone and glass facade so that should differentiate it from the Millenium somewhat, but I like what I see thusfar, perhaps it even better than I expected.

Unfortunately (or not), it will be blocked by Tower 5 of the WTC. But here's Bloomberg's residential. I don't know why he's got to actually get it on the WTC site itself. We're talking the difference of a block at best...

[Zerton]

very typical new york imo

[NYguy]

NY SUN

Dinner With the Governor
New York Sun Editorial

February 9, 2006

As the contenders for Liberty Bonds downtown were preparing for today's public meeting of the city's Industrial Development Agency, Mayor Bloomberg was having dinner with Governor Pataki - and they certainly had a lot to talk about.

The IDA is mulling a request from developer Joseph Moinian for $50 million of Liberty Bonds to help finance a hotel-condominium complex on a vacant lot next to the Deutsche Bank building in lower Manhattan. This proposal is competing for a small portion of the $1.6 billion in bonds that Larry Silverstein is trying to secure from the city to rebuild office space at ground zero. It's clear that Mr. Moinian's hotel fits into Mayor Bloomberg's vision of a "24/7" residential community in the area. It's less clear that the project fits into Mr. Pataki's.

To those who say that the outcome of this hearing will be a test of whether the city can be trusted to allocate the taxpayer-subsidized bonds for their intended purpose - rebuilding in lower Manhattan commercial space lost on September 11 - the mayor's camp says that Congress left some discretion in the allocation of these bonds.

Mr. Moinian has plans for a 53-story, 440,000 square foot structure with 220 hotel rooms and 180 luxury condominiums. He initially sought $147 million in Liberty Bonds that Congress intended for the World Trade Center, as the Sun's David Lombino reported in December, but after negotiations with the city and state, Mr. Moinian agreed to ask for only $50 million in bonds to finance the hotel portion.

In theory this removes one potential obstacle to funding the project with Liberty Bonds. Under the reduced request the bonds would only be funding the hotel portion of the project, rather than luxury condominium units, which weren't on the list of approved commercial uses Congress had in mind when it created Liberty Bonds. It doesn't take any longer to see through that dodge than it does to spell the word f-u-n-gi-b-l-e, for any grant would still amount to a $50 million partial subsidy for condominiums. But there's also the fact that no shortage seems to obtain in respect of private, market-rate financing for hotels.

More substantively, it was Mr. Silverstein who took the central risk downtown and who now owns the property rights at Ground Zero. Before September 11, there were something like 100 million square feet of prime office space downtown. Of that, 15 million square feet were lost in the attacks, while another 12.5 million square feet of office space has already been converted to residential use even without the mayor's grand plans for apartments at ground zero. Constructing enough office space to make a dent in the anticipated shortage in coming decades - Mr. Silverstein envisions building about 10 million square feet on ground zero - will prove harder to finance without the Liberty Bonds.

But what is Mr. Bloomber's logic? He is nothing if not a high-integrity public official and, since the Liberty Bonds are a public obligation, he has plenty of standing. While the Mayor was at dinner with the governor, his development czar, Daniel Doctoroff, called to say that the city would, all things being equal, prefer to allocate the bonds to Silverstein Properties. But, he said, "it's very, very clear that Silverstein Properties will run out of money unless rents go up dramatically in the next few years." And he suggested that even if the allocation to Mr. Silverstein is made, Mr. Silverstein won't be able to complete the project or use the bonds to finish the contemplated buildings.

The way Mr. Doctoroff sketches the case is to suggest looking at the situation in July 2001, when Mr. Silverstein won a competition to lease the World Trade Center from the Port Authority. It was, at the time, 96% occupied, with rents of $50 a foot. Mr. Silverstein's company had to incur debt of only $763 million. To rebuild today, Mr. Silverstein would, after all the insurance money, still have to borrow between $4 billion and $5 billion, or six times as much as before, rents are lower, and nothing's occupied. So the mayor is arguing that the right move is for Mr. Silverstein and Port Authority to strike a deal in which Mr. Silverstein gives up - not for nothing, but for a reduction in rent - two key sites, known as 3 and 4, along Church Street. And let the Port Authority get going. Mr. Doctoroff makes a "use them or lose them" argument in respect of the bonds, for which authority expires in 2009. Hence the pressure for Mr. Moinian's hotel deal.

New Yorkers might be tempted to look to Washington for a solution, but Senators Schumer and Clinton have about as much clout in the Republican congress as Lenin and Trotsky did at the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mr. Bloomberg hasn't helped by opposing the president on his court appointments and backing Democrats locally. So our guess is that the developer who took a risk on the World Trade Center two months before September 11 and the Republican mayor and governor are going to have to find a deal. We'd suggest that the next time the mayor and the governor go to dinner they bring Mr. Silverstein along, so long as they don't serve the taxpayers for desert.

[Jularc]

Moinian Aims To Build Downtown Hotel Financed in Part by $50M in Liberty Bonds


By DAVID LOMBINO
April 11, 2006

Developer Joseph Moinian is aiming to break ground next month on a 53-story hotel and condominium near ground zero that could be financed in part with $50 million in Liberty Bonds - financing that Larry Silverstein is also seeking.

The city has not yet awarded the bonds to Mr. Moinian, but a city official familiar with the application said the Bloomberg administration supports his project, which it sees as a relatively inexpensive way to encourage mixed-use development in Lower Manhattan.

The official said a hotel condominium could help spur demand at ground zero, and that $50 million in Liberty Bonds is not significant enough to upset negotiations with Mr. Silverstein, who has applied for the remaining $1.67 billion of the city's Liberty Bonds.

The city has not yet awarded any Liberty Bonds to Mr. Silverstein in an effort to compel the developer to renegotiate his 99-year lease on the ground zero site.

A spokeswoman for the Moinian Group, Daphne Viders, said yesterday that the bond application is being held up because Mr. Moinian has not yet submitted all the necessary paperwork to the city. She said a luxury hotelier would partner with the developer in the project; press reports have said it will be part of the W Hotel chain.

Last April, Mr. Moinian applied for $147 million of the tax-exempt bonds. In December, the president of the agency that will award the bonds, Andrew Alper, said the city was considering awarding the developer about $50 million. That amount of tax-exempt financing could save the developer about $2 million a year versus traditional commercial financing. If Mr. Moinian is not awarded the bonds, he has said he will not build the hotel portion of his project and will just construct apartments.

Mr. Moinian's 440,000-square-foot project, estimated to cost about $240 million, is slated to rise on an empty lot behind the Deutsche Bank building, which was severely damaged in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and is now being demolished. An office tower built by Mr. Silverstein is scheduled to occupy the Deutsche Bank building site, but the site has been mentioned as a possible residential building in recent negotiations between Mr. Silverstein and the Port Authority. It also could contain a hotel.

The same month that Mr. Moinian applied for the bonds, Mr. Silverstein applied for the city's remaining allotment of Liberty Bonds, which the developer said he would use to build 10 million square feet of commercial office space in five towers.


© 2006 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC.

[Urban Sky]

break ground next month [/B]

Finally...:banana:

[Jularc]

This one is already under construction.

[NYguy]

From curbed.com...

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006_07_moinian.jpg

A Liberty Leg Up for Another Hotel in Financial District

In case you hadn't heard, the post-9/11 Liberty bond cookie jar is nuthin' but crumbs at this point, but one of the last guys to get his hand in and snag some cut-rate financing sweetness was Joseph Moinian of the Moinian Group, who plans to develop a condo/hotel tower at 123 Washington Street—below ground zero, next to the shrouded still-not-demolished-yet Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty.

Mssrs. Gwathmey and Siegel—they who wrought Sculpture for Living upon the world—will be sharing the role of architect; more visuals for the project than you probably needed can be seen above. Come late '07 or early '08, look for 220 rooms on 25 painfully chic floors fitted with all the trappings of another W Hotel, while 180 residential condos are completed above. Throw in a "high-end restaurant, lounge, sky lobby, ancillary spa and fitness center," and you're already giving the Millenium Hilton something to sneer at from across the way.

[hi123]

that could possibly be the ugliest new building in new york along with 10 barclay.

[TREPYE]

:maddown: Yet another banal rectangle in the sea of rectangles in downtown. When will it stop?

[NYguy]

From curbed.com...

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006_07_moinian.jpg

Hoping it will look better in person. But either way, it will be dwarfed by tower 5, or the residential tower that will be built in place of the office tower.

[Chad]

Looks like it came streight out of Sim City 3000?

[NYguy]

Septermber 3, 2006

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/66285253/medium.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/66285251/medium.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/66285253/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/66285251/large.jpg

[colemonkee]

Whoa! So this is already under construction?

[hoosier]

Great! I need to add this building to my list of buildings to keep an eye on. I don't think this building is ugly at all if you go by the renderings. The WTC complex will render this building insignificant anyways, and those towers WON'T be boxes.

[NYguy]

Whoa! So this is already under construction?

They're working on it. They developer also got a chunk of liberty bonds for it, so it should go up quickly once it gets out of the ground, similar to 10 Barclay street.

[NYguy]

Daily News

Project hits brakes after tower shake

The city shut down a construction project near Ground Zero after pile driving caused a neighboring office building to shift and may have made the former Deutsche Bank tower shake, officials said.

The city Buildings Department halted construction of luxury apartments at 4 Albany St., a block from the World Trade Center site.

The Sept. 28 order came after workers discovered that an office building next-door at 120 Greenwich St. had moved about an inch since pile driving started a few weeks back.

The order also followed complaints that work at the site was causing vibrations at the toxic former Deutsche Bank tower across the street, records show.

Greg B. Smith

[Thskyscraper]

Daily News

Project hits brakes after tower shake

The city shut down a construction project near Ground Zero after pile driving caused a neighboring office building to shift and may have made the former Deutsche Bank tower shake, officials said.

The city Buildings Department halted construction of luxury apartments at 4 Albany St., a block from the World Trade Center site.

The Sept. 28 order came after workers discovered that an office building next-door at 120 Greenwich St. had moved about an inch since pile driving started a few weeks back.

The order also followed complaints that work at the site was causing vibrations at the toxic former Deutsche Bank tower across the street, records show.

Greg B. Smith
Thats strange. I don't know if it was a good idea to start constrution while they're demolishing the old Deutshe Tower, but I guess they'll have to investigate on this matter now.

[NYguy]

Thats strange. I don't know if it was a good idea to
start constrution while they're demolishing the old Deutshe Tower, but I
guess they'll have to investigate on this matter now.

It's a little odd, but I'm sure construction will resume once the investigation
is over. They are taking precautions because there has been a history of
problems with the dismantling of the Deutshe Bank tower. It was previously
stated that the entire thing could collapse if something were to go wrong.

You can see just how close the sites are from this pic:

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/66285251/large.jpg

[Antares41]

Foundation work has begun ,but, has been halted due to shift foundation of one of the adjacent buildings. Move to highrise construction.

[Lecom]

Thats strange. I don't know if it was a good idea to start constrution while they're demolishing the old Deutshe Tower, but I guess they'll have to investigate on this matter now.
Or, while demolishing Deutsche, they could use this time to strenghten the neighboring building.

Damn, what a haunted area for highrises. Just think about the headline, "Construction halted after neighboring building starts to shift, and a 40-story abandoned toxic tower shakes". And that's just one block away from friggin' Ground Zero. Which, in turn, is across the street from the site of Singer Building and quite a few other towers that have come down over the yars.

[Hoodrat]

:smiley3:

[NYC32]

WOW So much is going on in that area. LOVE IT

[Zerton]

It looks totally functional. The mismatched windows on the side are my biggest pet peeve in architecture. I thought that stopped after the 40s?

[NYguy]

It looks totally functional. The mismatched windows on the
side are my biggest pet peeve in architecture. I thought that stopped after the 40s?

Looks a little like Chicago's Water Tower Place...

http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/Images/NearNorthSide/WatertowerPlace-003.jpg_http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006_07_moinian.jpg

[gripja]

This building will look fine. It will be interesting watching this one rise while right across the street a building gets dismantled. If they both ever get to full steam it will be something I, for one, have never witnessed..

[NYC32]

WOW downtown is getting so many new towers. I like downtown skyline better than midtown. What do you guys think? Midtown or downtown skylines and why?

[NYguy]

This building will look fine. It will be interesting watching this one rise while right across the street a building gets dismantled. If they both ever get to full steam it will be something I, for one, have never witnessed..


Not only that, but there's another residential tower just as tall as this one going up on the next block south, where this parking garage now stands:

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/66285256/medium.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/66285271/medium.jpg

[NYguy]

NY Post

HOTEL PLAN FOR DOWNTOWN

By LOIS WEISS
January 12, 2007

Downtown may soon be getting a brand new W Hotel.

The Post has learned that developer Joseph Moinian is in serious discussions to open a hotel with the alphabetically charming name at 123 Washington St.

"We have heard the W as well as other chains coming Downtown," said Eric Deutsch, president of the Alliance for Downtown Lower Manhattan.

Moinian has approvals for a new, 56-story building that would include 120 hotel rooms on the bottom and 184 - likely luxury - apartments on top.

Plans filed with the Building Dept. also call for a fifth-floor roofdeck bar and lounge, a ground-floor restaurant, meeting rooms and a health club.

The 289,129 foot tower would rise 631 feet - about one-third the height of the nearby Freedom Tower. But it would still take a significant spot on the skyline, just south of the World Trade Center site.

Moinian did not return calls by press time.

[Lecom]

Not only that, but there's another residential tower just as tall as this one going up on the next block south, where this parking garage now stands

Which tower is that?

[Scruffy]

There is another construction site diagonally across from this one, anyone know the name or info. Corner of greenwich, albany and thames? it may just be an empty hole but i thought i heard something was planned for it

[Jularc]

There is another construction site diagonally across from this one, anyone know the name or info. Corner of greenwich, albany and thames? it may just be an empty hole but i thought i heard something was planned for it


25 Thames Street: 368 ft - 33 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/59892044.jpg

[NYguy]

Which tower is that?


I think its 111 Washington. We had a thread here, but its gone. I'll look it up.

Here's another thread:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=123558

[Scruffy]

damn. so now we have three towers with a block or two of each other while then being across the street from Future WTC 5 and that being across the street from the rest of the WTC complex. 12 Barclay, the new one behind Woolworth, Goldman Sachs, 8 Spruce, 101 Warren, and 200 Chambers. Is there any doubt now that the much called for resurgence of downtown is in full swing. Many thought that a rebuilt wtc would benefit only the wtc and the surrounding neighborhood would continue to fall apart. Now there is proof that that is not whats up. All of Downtown is hot.

[NYguy]

damn. so now we have three towers with a block or two of each other while then being across the street from Future WTC 5 and that being across the street from the rest of the WTC complex. 12 Barclay, the new one behind Woolworth, Goldman Sachs, 8 Spruce, 101 Warren, and 200 Chambers. Is there any doubt now that the much called for resurgence of downtown is in full swing. Many thought that a rebuilt wtc would benefit only the wtc and the surrounding neighborhood would continue to fall apart. Now there is proof that that is not whats up. All of Downtown is hot.

Plus, its all the more reason to be thankful that ground zero itself was left to commercial development. With so many new residential towers surrounding it, there was no reason a residential tower had to be built on site.

[NYguy]

Meanwhile, work has resumed, but no visible signs of progress yet...

JANUARY 14, 2006

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/73101851/large.jpg


A look at both sites:

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/73101846/large.jpg

[NYguy]

FEBRUARY 8, 2006

From the Marriot Financial Center...

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/74153054/medium.jpg_http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/74153057/medium.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/74153054/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/74153057/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/74153061/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/74153066/large.jpg

[fleonzo]

The building being held by those three steel beams at the bottom next to this project is where we lived on 9/11: 120 Greenwich St Apt 8F. We didn't move
back becuase we couldn't out our things until Dec.

wow....seeing this is......something.

[NYguy]

The building being held by those three steel beams at the bottom next to this project is where we lived on 9/11: 120 Greenwich St Apt 8F. We didn't move
back becuase we couldn't out our things until Dec.

wow....seeing this is......something.

I can only imagine...

[antinimby]

From the NY Observer today (http://www.observer.com/20070326/20070326_John_Koblin_finance_commercialbreaks.asp):

http://www.observer.com/data/articleimages/photoimages/032607_article_breaks3.jpg
Michael Shvo.

A very glam downtown project now has a very glam team to sell it.

The mad marketing genius Michael Shvo is partnering with developer Joseph Moinian to market a planned W Hotel at 123 Washington Street, a source said. Mr. Shvo is expected to market the condominium portion of Mr. Moinian’s condo-hotel.

The brash Mr. Shvo, who made himself famous with sleek marketing for 20 Pine Street and the Bryant Park Tower, revels in a clean and polished style. His marketing peddles to a certain audience—not quite trust-fund kids, but a group, say, that spends its weekend nights flooding the meatpacking district.

Mr. Shvo advertises on his Web site that he’s worked with the Moinian Group before, but this is surely their biggest project together. And now their partnership will decide the success of W’s first splash below 14th Street.

[NYguy]

Another tower that has been slow to rise, but will go up very quickly.

[NYguy]

Business Wire

W Hotels Puts the “W” Back in Wall Street with W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences
W Hotels’ Sixth Property in Manhattan Will Add Style and Substance to New York City’s Most Important Revitalization

March 27, 2007

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (NYSE:HOT) announces the continued expansion of W Hotels with an agreement with New York-based real estate developer Moinian Group to operate the W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences, a new luxury property in downtown Manhattan, featuring 217 guest rooms and 222 residential units. Located at 123 Washington Street, just one block from the site of the new Freedom Tower, the W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences will mark the W brand’s arrival in New York City’s recently revitalized downtown area. The newly constructed building is anticipated to open in 2008, with residential sales expected to begin in mid-2007.

The W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences is poised to serve the growing number of visitors and residents in lower Manhattan as it continues to transform itself into a premier 21st century business district and a vibrant residential community. Lower Manhattan is now the fastest growing residential market in the city, dedicating resources to improving its waterfront spaces, parks, schools, and cultural institutions, fostering the development of a more pedestrian-friendly environment.

As the first globally branded luxury hotel and residences project of its size and scale in downtown New York, the W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences is the first W residential development in Manhattan. Adding breadth to the W brand’s New York City based portfolio, this new property joins five other W hotels in the Big Apple and further strengthens Starwood’s position as the largest hotel operator in New York City with twelve renowned hotels in Manhattan.

“W is deeply connected to Manhattan and we’re proud to be a part of this important project to revitalize this part of the City,” said Ross Klein, President of Starwood’s Luxury Brands Group. “W New York-Downtown will create a destination inside a destination, adding substance, style and luxury to Manhattan’s most anticipated new development.”

The 57-story building will offer all of the W signature comforts, including its Living Room experience where guests can socialize while sipping cocktails, and the Whatever/Whenever® 24-hour concierge service that can provide whatever guests want (from a bed covered in rose petals to private jet service) whenever they want it. Offering the ultimate urban lifestyle, residences will feature spectacular views of the city as well as state-of-the-art kitchen appliances and a sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure. Residents will enjoy all the services and amenities available to hotel guests, in addition to exclusive access to a residence-only lounge area, rooftop terrace with cabanas, and private spa treatment rooms. Both the hotel and residences will have dedicated full-service fitness centers.

Moinian Group, one of the nation’s top real estate developers, is the owner and developer of the project and Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects has been named design architect for the building. SHVO Marketing is handling exclusive marketing and sales for the property and will open the W New York-Downtown Residences Welcome Center by mid-2007 at 90 West Street, directly opposite the building’s construction site.

“This project will be a premier destination in downtown Manhattan because it brings both new visitors to the city and new residents to the neighborhood,” said Joseph Moinian, President & CEO of Moinian Group. “The W Hotels brand, and its sophisticated, well-traveled and savvy clientele, will help shape the cultural landscape of the area, making downtown New York City an even more desirable destination.”

Michael Shvo, President of SHVO Marketing, agrees. “This property offers an exceptional opportunity to live downtown,” said Mr. Shvo. “Few brands can match the lifestyle appeal of W Hotels, which immediately conveys a strong contemporary style and elevated taste-level to the buyer. As big believers in downtown New York City, we’re thrilled to be part of this project, and will create a dynamic, interactive sales experience for the W brand that will make buying at the W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences a very easy decision.”

About W Hotels Worldwide

Since its debut in 1998, W Hotels has been a favorite of guests and developers alike and today is a global lifestyle brand with 21 properties in the most vibrant cities around the world. Inspiring and indulging its guests with thoughtful, refreshing and stylish experiences, signature restaurants, bars and destination spas, W has become the fastest-growing luxury hotel brand in the world. Each hotel offers a unique mix of innovative design, comfort and cultural influences from fashion to music to art and everything in between. W Austin Hotel & Residences will be the Brand’s second property in Texas, following the very successful W Dallas-Victory Hotel & Residences which opened earlier this year. Other recent openings include W Retreat & SpaSM – Maldives and W Seoul – Walkerhill. W has announced plans for new hotels in Philadelphia, Hollywood, South Beach, Phoenix, Scottsdale and Hoboken. Internationally, W has announced plans for hotels in Barcelona, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Santiago, Dubai, Doha and Koh Samui. For more information, visit www.whotels.com.

About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.® is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with approximately 850 properties in more than 95 countries and 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood® Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels and resorts with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, Sheraton®, Westin®, Four Points® by Sheraton, W®, Le Méridien® and the recently announced AloftSM and ElementSM Hotels. Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.

About Moinian Group

The Moinian Group is widely regarded as one of the industry’s most active development firms, boasting a portfolio totaling more than 20 million square feet of commercial, industrial, residential, retail and hotel properties throughout the U.S. and abroad. Its extensive acquisitions include trophy buildings like the Downtown Club in lower Manhattan, formerly known as the Downtown Athletic Club and home to the Heisman Trophy, the Sears Tower in Chicago and Continental Towers at 180 Maiden Lane in Downtown Manhattan. The Moinian Group aims to transform long-underutilized areas into dynamic, transit-oriented urban centers by integrating a mix of medium- and high-density residential, commercial, entertainment and cultural land uses. Striving for excellence, it sustains its leadership in the industry with a focus on creating new environments in which to grow, work and live. For more information, please visit www.moiniangroup.com.

About SHVO

SHVO, a leader in residential real estate marketing, branding and sales, brings breakthrough concepts and partnerships to the luxury condominium market. The company’s recent projects in Manhattan have sent new standards for luxury residence marketing, design and living. Founded by Michael Shvo, the company’s unique strategic strengths, design and technological insights, and sales expertise have resulted in an impressive roster of prestigious clients and successful projects. The SHVO signature includes innovative marketing and sales campaigns that create the right lifestyle proposition for the right buyer. In addition to marketing numerous buildings throughout New York, SHVO is actively marketing luxury properties in other major U.S. cities, Europe, Asia and Mexico. For more information, please visit www.shvo.com.

[Scruffy]

at the site now they have massive diagonal supports to the neighboring buildings. is this standard or was their problem when they started digging out for this tower?

[NYguy]

at the site now they have massive diagonal supports to the neighboring buildings. is this standard or was their problem when they started digging out for this tower?

There was a problem for a while...

Daily News

Project hits brakes after tower shake

The city shut down a construction project near Ground Zero after pile driving caused a neighboring office building to shift and may have made the former Deutsche Bank tower shake, officials said.

The city Buildings Department halted construction of luxury apartments at 4 Albany St., a block from the World Trade Center site.

The Sept. 28 order came after workers discovered that an office building next-door at 120 Greenwich St. had moved about an inch since pile driving started a few weeks back.

The order also followed complaints that work at the site was causing vibrations at the toxic former Deutsche Bank tower across the street, records show.

Greg B. Smith

[Scruffy]

ahh, thank you for the info. and to add to that, this was the site a few weeks ago.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i210/Scruffy69/DSC03423.jpg

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i210/Scruffy69/DSC03425.jpg

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i210/Scruffy69/DSC03421.jpg

111 Washington has nothing going since the parking lot is still up. But diagonally up the street, at 4 thames where this is planned



25 Thames Street: 368 ft - 33 floors

http://www.pbase.com/image/59892044.jpg

the site is empty but totally cleared.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i210/Scruffy69/DSC03428.jpg

[NYguy]

ahh, thank you for the info. and to add to that, this was the site a few weeks ago.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i210/Scruffy69/DSC03423.jpg

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i210/Scruffy69/DSC03425.jpg


Looks like activity picking up.

[Jularc]

Some fresh renderings...


http://www.pbase.com/image/77107807.jpg http://www.pbase.com/image/77107933.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/image/77107803.jpg

[kznyc2k]

That midsection destroys any grace this building might have had.

[sfcity1]

Some fresh renderings...


http://www.pbase.com/image/77107807.jpg http://www.pbase.com/image/77107933.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/image/77107803.jpg

All I can say is that they can do better than that.

[Scruffy]

Across from a very narrow street is going to be tower 5. Thats not much of a view. But that is the way it is in the downtown canyons

[NYguy]

Some fresh renderings...

Still reminds me of Watertower Place in Chicago...


http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/Images/NearNorthSide/WatertowerPlace-003.jpg_http://www.pbase.com/image/77107807.jpg
chicagoarchitecture.info

http://www.pbase.com/image/77107933.jpg_http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/Images/NearNorthSide/WatertowerPlace-004.jpg
Watertower Place from chicagoarchitecture.nfo

[hartss]

[SIZE="4"]From April 15, 2007, New York Times:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/realestate/commercial/15sqft.html

April 15, 2007
Square Feet | Checking In
Lower Manhattan’s Revival Will Include New Hotels
By LISA CHAMBERLAIN

LIKE the distant sound of an approaching herd, the rumble of hotel developers coming into Lower Manhattan is growing ever louder. With more than 3,000 hotel rooms under construction or in various stages of planning, hotel capacity there could more than double within a few years.

Luxury developments include a W Hotel at 123 Washington Street and a boutique hotel at 75 Wall Street. Both projects will offer full-service hotel rooms, as well as residential units for sale. At the same time, a dozen other hotel projects are under way, many of them by the McSam Hotel Group, a developer based in Long Island City, Queens.

The W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences, set to open in late 2008, is the W brand’s first property in Lower Manhattan. Developed by the Moinian Group and designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, it will have 217 guest rooms and 222 residential units. Residential sales are expected to begin later this year.

“We bought the land three years ago with the intent to build a hotel, and started talking to W more than two years ago,” said Joseph Moinian, chief executive of the Moinian Group, one of Lower Manhattan’s largest property owners with more than five million square feet of commercial and residential property.

The site is just a block away from the proposed Freedom Tower. The hotel “will be an important addition to the revitalization of Lower Manhattan,” Mr. Moinian said. He noted that visitors have been flocking to the area known after 9/11 as ground zero “before the memorial is even built.”

“Then there is all the infrastructure that downtown is getting — transportation, new streets and sidewalks, parks,” he said.

Mr. Moinian isn’t the only developer to see a need for more hotels in Lower Manhattan, especially when so many hotel rooms throughout the city have been converted into condominiums as a result of the residential real estate boom.

Rex Hakimian, the chief executive of the Hakimian Organization, has had plans for a couple of years to convert 75 Wall Street, a building used by JPMorgan Chase, into a hotel and condo building. The developer said he was close to signing an agreement with a major hotel company that is starting a new boutique brand in Lower Manhattan.

The 36-story building, which was completed in 1986, will have 251 rooms — almost half of which will be suites — and 350 condos for sale. Renovations have already begun, with an anticipated opening in the summer of 2008.

The building’s redesign is being handled by David Rockwell, the principal architect of the Rockwell Group, with an emphasis on 10-foot-high ceilings and 9-foot windows.

“From the outside, what you see is something that’s built as an office,” Mr. Rockwell said. “The surprise is going to be on the inside; it will be very luxurious, all about reflective light.”

The lower floors will include meeting spaces, a restaurant overlooking Water Street, and a bar that will spill out into an outdoor plaza. “We’re talking with a couple different arts- and music-related people to provide activities in the plaza, hopefully over the summer and beyond,” Mr. Hakimian said. “We want to create a lively, active atmosphere.”

An increasingly active downtown, in fact, has been fueling demand for hotel rooms, especially on weekends. According to Kathleen Duffy, a spokeswoman for Marriott’s New York City hotels, the New York Marriott Financial Center, with nearly 500 rooms at 85 West Street, had an occupancy rate of 93 percent in March. The year-round average on weekends at that hotel is in the 70 percent range, she said.

“When we as hoteliers talk about proactively promoting the site, it’s still under discussion if it’s appropriate to market it as a destination,” Ms. Duffy said, referring to ground zero. “But when you go down there, you see tons of people,” she said.

Right now, Lower Manhattan has just shy of 2,200 hotel rooms, according to the Downtown Alliance, a business improvement district. But if everything that is on the drawing board is built, there will be an additional 3,200 rooms.

That number includes a proposed 160-room boutique hotel by Time Equities, at 50 West Street. But the projection does not take into account plans announced by Silverstein Properties last month for knocking down a building at 99 Church Street and building a luxury hotel and condominium building. A spokesman for the company said that no final decision would be made until the building was vacated this fall.

Eric Deutsch, the director of the Downtown Alliance, said that the area remains “a central business district, but the hotel companies recognize that this is becoming more of a 24/7 community with an improving retail environment.”

Jeffrey Dauray, a senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis who specializes in the hospitality sector, agreed. “It’s a vibrant marketplace,” he said. “In terms of occupancy increases, it’s the best-performing submarket in Manhattan. Historically, downtown had been a five-night-a-week hotel market, but that has changed, thanks in large part to the mixed-use development that’s happened.”

Most of the larger, full-service projects are combinations of hotels and condominiums, Mr. Dauray noted, because the two markets complement each other. The early return of capital from condo sales helps to offset the longer-term investment that a hotel requires. “And the residential base supports the amenities that the hotel offers,” he added. “There’s quite a nice synergistic relationship.”

Mr. Dauray has underwritten a number of hotel deals over the last few years, including those for the McSam Hotel Group, which has been acquiring smaller sites and planning both full- and limited-service hotels in Lower Manhattan.

At 20 Maiden Lane, McSam has a 101-room hotel under construction that will be a Holiday Inn Express. The company also has 1,800 more hotel rooms in various stages of planning, including a 288-room Westin at 33 Beekman Street, a 192-room Doubletree at 8 Stone Street and a 371-room hotel, with no brand name yet, at 99 Washington Street, among others.

The Lam Group, another local development company, has a 660-room Sheraton under construction at 217 Pearl Street.

“The Lam Group and McSam stepped into a market that had been overlooked,” said Gene Kaufman, the architect for both developers. “Now there are others coming in. The rebirth of Lower Manhattan has exceeded expectations — to everyone’s great joy.”


------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Correction :) : April 22, 2007, Sunday The Checking In column last Sunday, about increased hotel development in Lower Manhattan, referred incorrectly to four hotels being developed by the McSam Hotel Group. At 20 Maiden Lane, the hotel will be a Wyndham, not a Holiday Inn Express, and it will have 113 rooms, not 101. At 99 Washington Street, the hotel will be a Holiday Inn with 370 rooms, not 371; it is not unnamed. At 8 Stone Street, a hotel yet to be named will have 400 rooms, not 192; it is not a Doubletree. And at 33 Beekman Street, a hotel yet to be named will have 350 rooms, not 288; it is not a Westin.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also, Hyatt's new Andaz brand will run the hotel at 75 Wall Street.

[kznyc2k]

hartss, you missed the best part of the above article -- a new rendering!

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/5483/15sqft2190xf6.jpg

[Lecom]

^slick

[NYguy]

Yeah, better renderings do a lot with perception...

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/5483/15sqft2190xf6.jpghttp://www.pbase.com/image/77107807.jpg

[NYguy]

http://lowermanhattan.info/news/freezing_helps_with_123_59194.aspx

Freezing Helps with 123 Washington Excavation

http://lowermanhattan.info/images/news/050807_123_washington_SM.jpg

Liquid nitrogen is being used to excavate at 123 Washington St

As foundation work proceeds at 123 Washington Street, contractor Tishman Construction has employed a non-traditional excavation method for the building's west elevator pit: liquid nitrogen. The chemical is being used to freeze the ground at the site, allowing crews to excavate despite the high water table in Lower Manhattan. The method shaves as much as three weeks off the pit's excavation schedule and should be complete this week. The overall completion for 123 Washington Street is planned for March 2008.

_________________

Less than a year. This one will rise superfast.

[Scruffy]

5.18-5.20
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/DSC04607.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/DSC04889.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/DSC04891.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/DSC04894.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/DSC04896.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/DSC04897.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/DSC04899.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/DSC04900.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/DSC04903.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/DSC04905.jpg

[antinimby]

The overall completion for 123 Washington Street is planned for March 2008.I highly doubt that, considering they haven't even gotten the foundation done yet.

[NYguy]

I highly doubt that, considering they haven't even gotten the foundation done yet.

I don't know, that's just a little less than a year. Once they reach street level, it will probably sprout up like the Barclay tower did. But March 2008 is very optimistic.

At least from the photos, there's a little more activity.

[120greenwhichguy]

Hey,

I live in the building next to 4 albany and I was wondering if any of you guys have a blueprint of the final footprint of the building. Im curious how much of the view west will be obscured by it. (BTW, I could load up some great photo of the building in progress from my vantage point...):tup:

-120gwg

[NYguy]

Hey,

I live in the building next to 4 albany and I was wondering if any of you guys have a blueprint of the final footprint of the building. Im curious how much of the view west will be obscured by it. (BTW, I could load up some great photo of the building in progress from my vantage point...):tup:

-120gwg

Looking forward to those...

[NYguy]

JULY 22, 2007

A little crowded...

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/82707724/large.jpg

[NYguy]

Posted on curbed.com

Investigating Downtown's Crane-to-Deli Ratio

http://www.curbed.com/2007_07_downtownteardown.jpg


Ah, downtown Manhattan! Glorious FiDi! The much-hyped best new place to live in our fair city! Or, uhm, not.

Per Curbed Photo Pool contributor BrianVan comes the above aerial snapshot, and this update: "1) DeutcheBank, currently being demolished top-down, soon to become JP Morgan's new headquarters; 2) One Albany street, soon to be a hotel; 3) 111 Washington, soon to be a 50-story tower. Around the corner: McSam @ Trinity/Rector, 99 Washington, the old Corbet & Conley lot that also got approval for something big recently, the neverending conversion of 88 Greenwich, the soon to be demolished 50 West Street, all the new construction in Battery Park City (including the Goldman HQ)... and of course, one block away, Ground Zero. (Did I mention they keep raising our rent through all of this? There are 6 cranes for every deli in my neighborhood. Grrrr.)"

Occurs to us that the crane-to-deli ratio might be a breakthrough in urban thinking worth pursuing. Folks in other neighborhoods, care to weigh in on your C:D?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianvan/896371034/in/pool-curbed/

[Scruffy]

Due to all the crap going on at the Deutsche bank deconstruction site which is across the street from this, all construction has been suspended for this site until the fire department lifts the frozen zone around the DB

[Scruffy]

current state

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee253/scruffy2165/DSC08082.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee253/scruffy2165/DSC08086.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee253/scruffy2165/DSC08081.jpg

[Scruffy]

the frozen zone around Deutche Bank should be lifted today so that construction can continue on this tower

[NYguy]

These Donwtown residentials confuse me sometimes. But at least we do have a rendering for this one.

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/5483/15sqft2190xf6.jpg

[NYguy]

http://www.nysun.com/article/65641

Downtown Hotel Condos at $2,000 a Foot

By BRADLEY HOPE
November 1, 2007

When the new W Hotel & Residences on Washington Street kicks off sales starting next week, potential buyers will be able to bid on condominiums costing $2,000 a square foot — or $800 more a square foot than the average downtown condominium.

"I just can't see that for downtown or the financial district; I think that's an overly aggressive shot," a managing director at Prudential Douglas Elliman, Andrew Gerringer, said.

Demand for these high-priced condominiums will be determined soon enough, with the sales office for the 58-story development scheduled to open Wednesday. In preparation, a real estate marketing guru, Michael Shvo, is unrolling a plan to lure potential buyers. Starting Monday, he has hired 10 fashion models to distribute postcards on Wall Street, and he will wrap six coffee carts with advertisements announcing the development. On Wednesday, the carts will offer free coffee. This is on top of a full-page advertisement in the New York Times and a sponsored tent during Fashion Week where celebrities perched on furniture similar to the designs for the new hotel.

On Wednesday the entire inventory — 223 condominiums on floors 23 through 56 — will be offered at opening-day prices. This is a break from the tradition of brokers selling a limited number of apartments at the initial price, then releasing more gradually at increasingly higher prices.

"It's just for us a way to accommodate the amount of interested buyers we have," Mr. Shvo said. More than 2,000 people had pre-registered on the building's site as of Monday. The building, which will also have 217 hotel rooms on floors six through 22, is not scheduled for occupancy until 2009.

In addition to the aggressive marketing techniques, Mr. Shvo and his team will lure potential buyers with an over-the-top sales office that includes a dimly lit room with a full bar and the smell of scented candles. A member of the sales team will pull visitors through a high-tech cinematic presentation with videos projected onto curved walls, a spinning globe that controls a computer, and an interactive tour of the building controlled by hand movements.

Then, they will get escorted in a golf cart approximately 100 feet down the street to another showroom with a model apartment and "closing rooms" where they can view floor plans.

"We are trying to re-create the experience of what it would be like to live in a W Hotel — the convenience, the luxury of the brand," Mr. Shvo, wearing a gray suit with a white shirt buttoned to the sternum, said.

The apartments will start at $2,000 a square foot, with one bedrooms priced at $1.05 million to $1.85 million, and two bedrooms listed for $2.19 million to $2.64 million, according to Mr. Shvo.

"We are selling a lifestyle," he said. "The lifestyle of very active people, a social lifestyle. It's for people who are young and want to have fun."

The new W Hotel will rise alongside as many as 13 other hotel projects under construction or planned for sites below Canal Street, according to the Real Estate Board of New York's August list of Manhattan hotel development. The other projects include a Global Hyatt in the old headquarters of the JPMorgan building at 75 Wall St. and a luxury hotel/condominium building by Larry Silverstein at 99 Church St.

"Downtown is very much an evolving market," a senior managing director at CB Richard Ellis's hospitality and gaming group, Daniel Lesser, said. "It's becoming a 24/7 type of environment down there. It's becoming a community in and of itself."

The architect of the new W Hotel, Charles Gwathmey, describes his concept for the hotel in one of the videos projected in the sales center as an "iconic, translucent lantern in downtown Manhattan."

The Los Angeles-based company, Graft, which is known for its use of curves and ambient light, will assemble the furniture in the hotel. Their designs will be in the hotel rooms and 64 of the residences.

In line with Mr. Shvo's description of the building as being "sexy," some of the rooms will feature fully translucent showers right next to the beds. The shower walls are made with "scintilla" tiles, which change as bathers stand in front of them. One of the renderings boasts a "peekaboo" shower, which depicts half a naked woman behind fogged glass.

The Graft kitchens include a giant plasma screen hidden behind cabinet doors and another in the main living area.

All of the units of the building will feature maple doors, Italian crocodile-textured ceramic tiling, towel warmers, Sub-Zero refrigerators, Miele cooking equipment, and Asko washer/dryers.

Residents of the condominiums will have access to the same amenities as the hotel guests, including a comprehensive 24-hour service called Whatever/Whenever/Wherever, where agents try to fulfill all guest requests, ranging from room service to photocopies to tickets to shows.

Residents will have exclusive access to a digital lounge with flat screen televisions, wireless Internet access, and video game systems, as well as a café, gym, spa treatment rooms, and a rooftop terrace overlooking the city.

[NYguy]

http://www.cityrealty.com/new_developments/

Peek-a-Boo Loos at 123 Washington Street

http://www.cityrealty.com/graphics/uploads/1193955129_wash123x.jpg

01-NOV-07

Marketing is started for the W Hotel & Residences project at 123 Washington Street near Ground Zero where some of the apartments will have "a flirty, translucent-walled Peek-A-Boo Loo," according to the development's website that shows a rendering of a bedroom with a glass shower wall behind which there appears to be a naked woman.

The 57-story development will have 222 apartments and 217 hotel rooms, a roof deck, a gym, a spa, a cafe and a media lounge.

The building is being developed by the Moinian Group and has been designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates.

According to the architectural firm's website, "the tower's glass curtain wall has a subtle grid pattern of white, grey and clear glass panels that visually separates it from more commercial structures....The white panels feature two layers of glass with the outer layer receiving a pattern of white dots over an interior panel also painted white. The shadows of the dots against each white panel will move as the sun passes, adding a depth of tone and texture."

Avinash K. Malotra Architects is the associate architect for the 631-foot-high project. Occupancy is scheduled for 2009.

GRAFT, a design firm established in Los Angeles in 1998, is designing the interiors of the hotel rooms and 64 of the apartments, which will have cushioned window seats, sliding doors, and lacquered cabinetry highlighted by angled insets.

According to a diagram on the website, hotel rooms will be on floors 6 through 22, "W furnished" residences will be on floors 23 through 30, and "W residences" will be on floors 33 to 56.

According to an article in today's edition of The New York Sun by Bradley Hope, sales open Wednesday and apartments "will start at $2,000 a square foot, with one-bedrooms priced at $1.05 million and two bedrooms listed for $2.19 million to $2.64 million."

The article also stated that "all of the units of the building will feature maple doors, Italian crocodile-textured ceramic tiling, towel warmers, Sub-Zero refrigerators, Miele cooking equipment and Asko washer/dryers," adding that "residents of the condominiums will have access to the same amenities as the hotel guests, including a comprehensive 24-hour service called Whatever/Whenever/Wherever."

The Moinian site is south of Ground Zero and adjacent to the Deutsche Bank Building, which is in the process of being demolished because it was severely damaged in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The project also has the addresses of 4-12 Albany Street and 3-13 Carlisle Street.

[StatenIslander237]

Ten years ago, no moron would've even thought of opening this type of hotel, or a hotel period, in Lower Manhattan. It is simply amazing how much Downtown is changing. By like 2015, it will be almost entirely a different place.

....and this hotel really sounds HOT. :worship:

[Dac150]

Ten years ago, no moron would've even thought of opening this type of hotel, or a hotel period, in Lower Manhattan.

I know, its amazing to me that the former 3 WTC Marriot was the first Lower Manhattan hotel. Then you had the Marriot Financial Center and the Millenium Hilton. Now hotels are sprouting up all over the place, and classy, high-end ones at that.

[NYguy]

Yeah, Downtown's best days are ahead of it...:yes:

[VA_Gentleman]

So this building is 631 feet and fifty seven stories not fifty three according to the article posted by NYguy?

[NYguy]

So this building is 631 feet and fifty seven stories not fifty three according to the article posted by NYguy?

Correct. But we know how those numbers vary, according to what's counted and what's not.

[NYguy]

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/5483/15sqft2190xf6.jpg


NOVEMBER 10, 2007

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/88762328/medium.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/88762329/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/88762331/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/88762333/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/88762334/large.jpg

[NYguy]

http://curbed.com/archives/2008/04/17/show_us_your_sales_office_w_hotel_residences.php?o=0

Show Us Your Sales Office: W Hotel & Residences

http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2312/2417518185_5090a4ab31_o.jpg

Thursday, April 17, 2008, by Joey

Beyond this door at 90 West Street, a luxury rental building just south of Ground Zero, lies a world of sex, money, intrigue ... and spaceships. It's the "sales experience" of the W New York Downtown Hotel & Residences—a 58-story Gwathmey Siegel-designed tower currently under construction around the corner at 123 Washington Street—and it certainly is an experience.

The base of operations for the W's first New York condo-hotel is unmistakably Shvo, including the price tag on the space's build-out: over $1 million (they wouldn't tell us exactly how much). Why so fancy? The condo units, which come furnished or unfurnished and begin at the 33rd Floor, are priced around $2,000/sqft, way higher than its FiDi neighbors. To sell people on a non-traditional neighborhood at those prices, the Moinian Group and Michael Shvo knew they had to go all the way. Hence, a sales office that could have been a set in Minority Report, with plasma screens as far as the eye can see.

German design firm Graft (Brad Pitt's favorite!) handled all the ultra-modern interiors, and they also got to run wild on the sales office. The ribbon-like walls are the same that will be worked into the building and its 223 bachelor-pad residences. The space has a fully stocked bar, complete with W Hotel cocktail menu and full-time bartender. But the most over-the-top detail is no longer in service. The sales center and showroom are actually separate spaces on the ground floor of 90 West Street, about 60-70 feet from door to door. There used to be a W-branded chauffeured golf cart to shuttle buyers back and forth (Mikey's idea), but it was ruined in the Great Flood. Curse ye, gods! Click through the gallery to bare witness to this one-of-a-kind sales office.

http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3024/2417447117_ddb2720948_o.jpg
The greeting area, in all its Graft-designed glory. That's the bar, glowing in the back.


http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2033/2418277588_7b0d1a4bf8_o.jpg
The computers next to the bar run visitors through an online registration. At the end of the tour, you're presented with a W Hotel & Residences card with your name on it. Get it scanned at any Shvo sales office, and your information/wants/needs/desires are immediately known. The MasterShvard!


http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3119/2417435621_2aacf86732_o.jpg
The "sales experience" offers numerous projections triggered by stepping on beams of light and embedded "W"s.


http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2084/2418245792_63ccb56730_o.jpg
What, you didn't believe us? Here, we're learning about the neighborhood and its amenities.


http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2004/2418254636_836c64b461_o.jpg
In this clip, Charles Gwathmey describes the W as an "iconic, translucent lantern." To illustrate this point, the model comes to life and begins glowing. Yes friends, Charles Gwathmey is a witch.


http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2049/2417419609_2cf2211fa6_o.jpg
The globe in the middle of the floor activates a clip with information on W's brand and worldwide properties. Very supervillain.


http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3204/2417497725_34245bdf46_o.jpg
Want some privacy in the shower? There are automatic blinds that can be lowered. Other shower options include the sexy glazed glass look.


http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2314/2418284956_2a563f4528_o.jpg
With the W's in-house dining options, there's not going to be much cooking done in these apartments. You almost need to be Lewis and/or Clark to find that fridge.


http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2051/2417493891_ff00cda859_o.jpg
The TV in the living room can call up the floorplans/pricing for all the units, display real photographs of their views and beam a live shot of the construction site. Oh, yeah, it's not built yet. Can't they just let us live here?

[Scruffy]

a couple weeks ago

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/saya/DSC00208.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/saya/DSC00209.jpg

super duper skinny for its height
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/saya/DSC00214.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/saya/DSC00213.jpg

[Swede]

That IS skinny! Is it just me or is that rendering pretty different from the one we had before?

Hopefully 130 Liberty will be at least somewhat closer to having come down by the time this one is done.

[scalziand]

Wow. That changed a lot from the previous renders. It seems kind of odd for s tower that is this skinny to have a facade that emphasizes it's horizontal aspect rather than the vertical aspect.

edit: found one of scruffy's pics from across wtc shows this peaking out from behind DB tower:
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/saya/DSC00536.jpg

[NYguy]

That IS skinny! Is it just me or is that rendering pretty different from the one we had before?

It looks different...

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/5483/15sqft2190xf6.jpg_http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/saya/DSC00213.jpg

[ZZ-II]

the new render looks much better IMO, though it looks thinner

[NYguy]

the new render looks much better IMO, though it looks thinner

Probably the sharper angle that makes it look thinner (it's rendered from the smaller side)...

[NYC4Life]

When observing from the north / Ground Zero, the progress on this tower is blocked by that eyesore Deutsche Bank. But hopefully we'll get the "full" view by the end of the year when demolition is completed at the Deutsche. I love the amount of skyscrapers being built in the immediate surrounding areas of the wtc.

[StatenIslander237]

The thought of seeing a skyline shot of Lower Manhattan after everything is all said and done, well, its something I'm not really sure I can even imagine.

[NYguy]

The thought of seeing a skyline shot of Lower Manhattan after everything is all said and done, well, its something I'm not really sure I can even imagine.


They said Downtown would be back, better than ever. And they were right.

[NYC4Life]

They said Downtown would be back, better than ever. And they were right.


Not just Downtown and the Financial District, but NYC in general as it bathes in this historic construction boom.