If you’ve walked by the corner of Essex and Delancey streets on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, you’ve probably noticed there’s a lot going on. What is it? It’s the Essex Crossing mega-development. Among many other things, it will be the new home of the Essex Street Market. The current market is, however, still up and running and it wants people to know that.
Billionaire Ronald Perelman has pledged to donate $75 million to resurrect plans for the World Trade Center‘s Performing Arts Center, to be located at 70 Vesey Street in the Financial District. That’s the patch of land bound by Vesey, Greenwich, and Fulton streets, once home of the WTC’s temporary PATH station. The three-to four-story, 80,000-square-foot complex, now dubbed the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center, will eventually boast three theaters. They will each seat 499, 299, and 100 people, but will have the ability to be reconfigured into a single 1,200-seat theater, according to the New York Times. Brooklyn-based REX Associates is responsible for the design. Perelman’s donation will be combined with $100 million already awarded by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC). The project is reportedly expected to cost $240 million in total, although the the LMDC said last year it will cost no more than $200 million. Groundbreaking is set for 2018.
Yesterday was ‘Archmodel Wednesday’ on Instagram, which meant that YIMBY Forumers were actively posting images of several new developments. And in the background of an image containing SHoP’s 111 West 57th Street, our team of cyber-sleuths spotted another project that has not yet been revealed. 80 South Street’s massing diagram had alluded to the tower’s supertall potential, but now we have a look at an actual model of the building, though the fine-grained details remain fuzzy, which confirms that the tower will rise over 1,400 feet tall. That would make it the tallest building by roof height in Lower Manhattan, standing approximately 50 feet above the rooftop of One World Trade Center.
It looks like another supertall will rise in Lower Manhattan. Plans for a 77-story, 600-unit mixed-use tower at 235-247 Cherry Street, on the southern end of the Lower East Side, have surfaced in City Planning documents obtained by Bowery Boogie. The schematic diagram indicates the tower’s roof level will clock in at 983 feet and 8 inches, which would be categorized as a supertall by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). A parapet enclosing the building’s bulkhead and mechanical equipment would boost the final height even further, possibly past the 1,000-foot mark. JDS Development Group is seeking minor zoning changes to build the tower. Details and renderings of the cantilevering project were first revealed in the spring. At the time, it was learned that the tower would include 150 affordable units, 10,000 square feet of retail, and a 4,600-square-foot senior center. The adjacent 10-story Two Bridges Senior Apartments would also see a renovation. SHoP Architects is behind the design, and Two Bridges Neighborhood Council and Settlement Housing Fund are the property owners. A single-story commercial building will have to be demolished. Construction is not expected to begin until at least 2018.
On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission took another step towards clearing its formerly 95-item backlog of sites calendared pre-2010. The commission designated seven properties in two boroughs – Staten Island and Manhattan. There was also a non-backlog designation.
