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Residences and retail amenities will make up 270 Greenwich Street
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Lauded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg for its mixed uses, 270 Greenwich Street, a towering residential-and-retail development in Tribeca south, will fill out close to one million square feet and provide equal parts market-rate housing, and low- and middle-income units.
To boot, the developer already has secured much-needed retail amenities to support its 390 total residential units by its 2007 scheduled completion. Across 170,000 square feet of retail space, Lower Manhattanites will have a Whole Foods Market, Barnes & Noble bookstore, Bank of America branch office, and several more shops and services.
"This important project is in keeping with our administration's vision for the revitalization of Lower Manhattan as a round-the-clock, vibrant community," said Bloomberg. "It is also a project that does a spectacular job of striking the right balance between commercial development and community needs."
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| Mayor Bloomberg was joined by local VIPs for the groundbreaking |
Alongside the mayor at the groundbreaking ceremony was the site's developer, Edward Minskoff, who noted, "This nearly one-million-square-foot project is the largest retail and residential development south of Canal Street in decades." The event also was attended by several VIPs, including New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff, New York City Council Member Alan Gerson, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) President Stefan Pryor, and city Housing and Preservation Department Commissioner Shaun Donovan.
The development of 270 Greenwich Street, known as "Site 5B" under the Washington Street Urban Renewal Area until its expiration in January 2002, is the result of a Request for Proposals issued by the city requiring commercial development. After September 11, 2001, however, the city changed its mandate to develop the site for residential use.
To that end, Minskoff purchased the lot for $110 million -- one of the highest prices ever paid for a city-owned site. His development entity, 270 Greenwich Street Associates, expects to invest $450 million to erect the building. Minskoff also will contribute $7.5 million for the maintenance of Washington Market Park (just north of the site), and $3.6 million towards the future 27,600-square-feet community center at 200 Chambers Street.
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| Excavation at the site is currently underway |
In the spirit of cooperation, the LMDC is supplying a $15 million subordinate mortgage for the project, and the developer was afforded $49.8 million from the city Housing Development Corporation to help finance construction of the mixed-income portion of the building.
Designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill, the building itself consists of three main parts. Topped by a 382-feet-tall tower, the residential condominium building will be located at West and Warren Streets, above which a second loft/duplex condominium section will rise another 138 feet. Beside the tower will be the L-shaped rental structure, including an eight-story-tall (101 feet) segment on Greenwich Street, and a 12-story-tall segment (134 feet) on Murray Street.
The development's market-rate condominiums will occupy about 50 percent of all units, while 20 percent are to be set aside as low-income units, and 30 percent as middle-income units. The latter will be rented through a city-guided lottery process.
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