Riverlofts - 92 Laight/424 Washington - Condo - by Tsao & McKown Architects

[Edward]

From a recent New York Times article:

... Other projects with West Street frontages are in varying stages of planning. At one site, Africa Israel Investments Ltd., a development firm based in Yahud, a town outside of Tel Aviv, owns two connected parcels at West Street and Laight Street, three blocks south of Canal Street at the western fringe of TriBeCa.

Asi Cymbal, the American representative of the company, said the intention is to build a 69-unit condominium in two buildings, one of 13 stories at West and Laight and the other of six stories at Washington and Vestry Streets, connected by an internal corridor. There would be first-floor commercial space and below-ground parking. The architect is Ismael Leyva of Manhattan, with Tsao & McKown, also of Manhattan, as the design architect.



From Crain's New York:

Israeli firm acquires TriBeCa site for condos
by Lore Croghan

Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. paid $26.5 million, or $150 per developable square foot, for a site on Laight and West streets, where it plans to build condominium apartments.

The buyer is an investment fund that's publicly traded on the Tel Aviv stock exchange. Sellers Carl Marks Real Estate Group and the Claremont Group had assembled the TriBeCa site from three properties, 256 West St., 259 West St. and 416-424 Washington St.

After abandoning a plan to build a hotel there, they obtained the largest zoning variance ever granted for residential construction in TriBeCa.
Copyright 2002, Crain Communications, Inc

[billyblancoNYC]

It's about time. *The West side should be BEAUTIFUL with all new condos/rentals and offices. Retail on ground floor and some cultural amenities would be nice. *There also should be some innovative architecture and height - since it's such a prominent location. *This plus the new Hudson River Park will make it a great place in the city. *Look at the Meirer (sp?) buildings - celebs paying insane money.

Good to see.

[NYatKNIGHT]

This area seems to have been overlooked uuntil now, perhaps because it is disconnected from the rest of the city by the Holland Tunnel interchanges.

[Agglomeration]

Tee hee hee... *I can already imagine these 60-year-old NIMBY's showing up at these board meetings and saying about this project... "The new condo will overcrowd the neighborhood!" "The architecture and building height will be out of place!" "It will encourage overdevelopment which will in turn attract terrorists!" blab blah blah...

(Edited by Agglomeration at 2:14 am on Jan. 15, 2003)

[billyblancoNYC]

Yeah, really. *It's amzaing - move to Idaho (offense to Idaho) if you want nothing to change and not "big mean buildings" to be built. *What did you think it was when you moved to NYC anyway.

No one is old enough to remember it as farms, I would think.

[amigo32]

*Yea, those big mean buildings are SCARY!

[Edward]

http://www.globest.com/RMIX5VVZZAD.html

Tribeca Site Sells for $26.5M; Residential Development Planned
By Glen Thompson
Last updated: Jan 22, 2003 *03:35PM

NEW YORK CITY-Brewran West Associates, an affiliate of the Carl Marks Real Estate Group and the Claremont Group, has sold three adjacent Tribeca parcels in a $26.5-million deal. The 23,000-sf assemblage, which includes a landmarked warehouse, will be developed as a residential project with ground-floor retail and an underground parking.
Carl Marks managing director Martin Schiffman tells GlobeSt.com the warehouse is the only existing building on the site and that its landmark status prohibits its demolition. "It's in the Tribeca Historic District and is going to be restored to its historical perspective," he says. A 14-story multifamily development will be built close to the warehouse, Marks adds. A 6,000-sf parking lot and a sliver of vacant land comprise the remainder of the assemblage. The parcels, which occupy half a block in an irregular configuration running north and east from the intersection of West and Laight streets, are the largest site in Tribeca to receive a residential variance.

The former owners acquired the three parcels--256 West St., 259 West St. and 416-424 Washington St.--in two transactions, between 1989 and 1993, and applied for a single variance that would change the zoning from manufacturing to residential, which they received. Under their original plan, the new building would be connected to the redeveloped warehouse, which will also contain residential units, via a "tastefully designed corridor," Schiffman notes. "We always contemplated the site as one major development.

"We sensed the opportunity of a changing neighborhood," Schiffman adds. "In 1989 when the American Savings Bank foreclosed its mortgage on a partially completed commercial building adjacent to the initial site, we arranged a joint venture with the savings bank to join the two properties to form the nucleus of the development plan." The third site, 259 West Street, was added in 1993 when Colonial Art Decorators, Inc., a family owned paint business went bankrupt.

The buyer, Israeli investment fund Africa Israel Investments Ltd., plans to build a similar complex to the Carl Marks plan, Schiffman notes, though they have asked the city for permission to make some minor changes to the original design. "The FAR has been predetermined," Schiffman notes. They have to work within the zoning envelope."

[Edward]

http://www.nypost.com/realestate/18182.htm

The River Lofts condominium project along West Street at 92 Laight and 424 Washington is already 60 percent sold.

The former parking lot - on the north side of Laight, across from the Sugar Warehouse - has gone through gyrations for more than a dozen years, since it was controlled by now-defunct American Savings Bank.

The community insisted that the incredibly dilapidated warehouse at 424 Washington be rescued by the original hotel developer.

The current developer, Shaya Boymelgreen, accomplished this through the collaboration of Tsao & McKown with project architect Ismael Levya.

A new 13-story tower is rising on the parking lot and attached through its rear skylit gallery to the warehouse. The gallery will feature a live video art installation of the ebbs and flows of the Hudson River.

The Sunshine Group is marketing the 1,100- to 3,900-square-foot units, which are priced from $1.125 million to $8.55 million; they'll be ready for occupancy in 2005.

[Edward]

The post below was originally posted by ZippyTheChimp in another thread ...

North Tribeca across the street from the US Sugar Building. The original developer tried for over a decade to develop the L shaped site, a parking lot on West St, and a run down warehouse on Washington St that had to be stabilized to keep it from collapsing. The argument was over a zoning variance on the parking lot to offset the cost of renovating the warehouse. First a hotel and then residential buildings of various dimensions were proposed. The developer and the city came to terms sometime before 09/11, but afterward he sold to another group. The process started over and the present design was accepted.

It's just good to see something happen here. There were no sidewalks around the warehouse, and "park at your own risk" signs were posted around the building. :roll:

The old warehouse on Vestry and Washington Sts. The US Sugar Building is on the far left. It was built before the Civil War and may have been the tallest building in NYC (not counting church spires).


Laight and Washington Sts


View from Hudson River Park. The building on the left was completely ruined by that ugly two-storey addition.


RiverLofts Website
The map on the website is in error.

[Edward]

River Lofts on 5 July 2004.

[cphdude]

Originally Posted by Edward

River Lofts on 5 July 2004.

Any updates on this project? Must be almost done by now. I really like this one...

[NY-SY]

if anyone has any more information reagrding this project I would be most grateful as it forming a case study for one part of my dissertation (BSc.Architectural Technology degree)
I'm basically looking for past uses, latest pics etc and any other relevant information
Cheers
Dan

[Edward]

http://www.nypost.com/realestate/comm/43450.htm

A private club and salon where men can have their hair cut, enjoy spa treatments or simply play billiards and smoke cigars leased 3,603 feet at 424 Washington Place, part of the River Lofts complex.

John Allan's gentlemen's club will open in the Boymelgreen Development project created out of a former warehouse and attached new building.

Asking rent was $50 a foot and the 10-year deal has a five-year renewal option.

Roxanne Betesh of Sinvin Realty Corp., represented the owners while Michael Berger of GVA Williams represented the tenant.

Meryl Streep owns an $8.95 million penthouse in the second building at 92 Laight Street.

[Edward]

River Lofts on 1 May 2005, with Pier 26.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Sept 10, 2005

1. 92 Laight from HRP
2. The more intersting warehouse on Washington St. The roof addition replicates the arched windows.
3. Retail along Washington St.

4. Another development, 88 Laight St.
http://www.elliman.com/Listing.aspx?...urrent&BID=DEF

I don't know what is to happen at the corner parking lot. River Lofts seems to think there will be no development.