How Tribeca Became Nyc's $50M Neighborhood
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March 4, 2013 October 9, 2013 Just back: South Beach Wine and Food HOWBy MICHAEL TRIBECAKAPLAN BECAME NYC’S $50M NEIGHBORHOODFlying down from LaGuardia to Miami for the 12th annual BSouthy MAX Beach GROSS Wine and Food Festival, chef John DeLucie coinci- dentally sat next to his old boss Jonathan Waxman. We“We now talked know and TriBeCalaughed for as aa few neighborhood minutes and wherethen Jonathan Jon Stewartput on his vies headphones,” with Gwyneth DeLucie Paltrow recounted, for sidewalk just a few space; hours be- wherefore the the food local fest’s restos opening-night are curated event, by MoëtDavid Hennessy’s Bouley and the Q, Drewwhich Nieporent;featured more where than the40 of apartments the world’s greatestare massive, chefs grillingand a Duaneeverything Street from townhouse antelope to is pork in contract cheeks to for beef just hearts under on the$50 million.Delano’s beach. “Jonathan turned his music on, and that was the endIt of wasn’t talking.” always this way. InWaxman the spring still hadof 1993, the beat the that average night, price operating for a outcondo of a or abooth co-op near in theTriBeCa big stage (and where neighboring a funk band SoHo) blasted was away. $182 He per blissfully bopped to the music and sliced his way through a square foot, according to data from the real estate appraisal whole New York strip. Conversely, Harold Dieterle, frying firm Miller Samuel. Two decades later, that figure is more chicken nearby, said that the sounds were more annoyance than thaninspiration. eight timesMaybe higher Waxman — knewin the something: last quarter He of was 2013, crowned the averageKingsford price Charcoal per square King of foot the wasQ. $1,569, and the average four-bedroomArguably, though, mega-loft the real was winners trading this at past $1,981 weekend per square were foot.some of Miami’s newer and lower-key eateries, which benefited fromSo national how did exposure. this neighborhood, The great Peruvian-inspired once an unpopulated Jean Paul’s spanHouse of dazzled cast-iron at the factories Fontainebleau’s and warehouses Best of the (as Best well event, as the with buttercrispy porkand bellyegg capital braised of in thegrapes city), and become Pisco 100. the Two-month- domain of a.m. “He walked in with 10 bodyguards and all kinds of people rockold Northern stars, movie Thai actorsspecialist and Khong hedge-fund River House princes attracted — not no to you find in the street,” sniffed Andrés. “I tried to say hello to him, mention,less a force one than of superstar the most restaurateur sought-after Danny areas Meyer. for newHe tolddevel the- but maybe I’m not on TV enough. He didn’t know who I was, opment?chefs to keep sending out their finest and tweeted a photo of an and I thought his bodyguards would drive me onto the ground.” enormous pig leg. The change started happening in the 1970s. “This was The next morning, no worse for wear, Andrés merrily hit golf The festival has become influential enough that Richard San- something that was a gleam in the [Department of City balls at a Turnberry Isle charity tournament where he smoked an doval, who recently opened Miami’s Toro Toro, cut short a Dubai 8 a.m. cigar, double-fisted champagne glasses and mused, “I can’t Planning’s] eyes for years,” says Bob Abrams, who moved business trip and barbecued brisket at the Eden Roc pool. Pa- believe I do this for a living.” Edward Lee, of Louisville’s lauded into a 3,000-square-foot apartment, with another 3,000 parazzi stalked “Top Chef” stars near the beach. And many New 610 Magnolia, might have had similar thoughts at the Let’s Get squareYork chefs feet absconded of outdoor from space, their at kitchens. 16 Hudson Daniel St. Boulud when thenipped Spiked!when Robert Chef Volleyball De Niro Tournament was playing (held Jake on LaMotta the James in Royal “Rag - buildingdown to cook went langoustines co-op in 1979. for a Backscrumptious then the tribute entire dinner six-story, Palm’sing Bull” beach) and as needed he squeezed a place into with a pair good of booty light, shorts, privacy embla and- 30-unithonoring structure Nobu Matsuhisa (including and Christophefive commercial Navarre spaces), at the Loews which zonedspace with to practice “I’m in Miamihis fight Bitch” scenes, across he the set back. up a As boxing game-time ring in had— maybe been itused was forto make light up manufacturing, for the time at the sold Dead for Sea$4 million.when approached,a TriBeCa loft.Jeff Mauro, host of the Food Network’s “Sandwich AbramsBoulud snuck paid upan on “embarrassingly Matsuhisa and jammed low” price fistfuls for hisof blacktop-floor mud King,”By quietlythe 1970s, confessed the city to beingwas offering off bread tax for thebenefits moment like and the unit.inside his shorts. Andrew Carmellini spent at least one late night moreJ-51 programloudly announced to turn aindustrial fear that a buildings chef would and end warehouses up in a cuddling up with a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle at the hot Broken By that time, artists had already discovered that the area body-castinto residences. after the volleyball match. Shaker outdoor bar, where he maintains a 99-and-1 table-tennis was ripe for conversion. A“TriBeCa quick scan was of thea pretty jam-packed, desolate Saturday-night place,” Abrams bash remem put on - record. According to Jon Shook of LA’s Animal, you can’t go by the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas at Estiatorio Milos lent the “There were pioneers like Richard Serra and Meredith bers. “What it did offer was an incredible amount of space, wrong at the James Beard Award-nominated Shaker when you’re impression that there were no injuries sustained on the sandy Monk and Sandi Slone, who happens to be my wife,” says sipping bar-maestro Elad Zvi’s Cocoa Puffs-infused bourbon. court,and so but much overstuffed more cheaply bellies and than alcohol-sopped the Upper East brains Side were or Douglas Elliman broker Bruce Ehrmann, who is also co- An after-party co-hosted by José Andrés at the SLS South everywhere.Brooklyn Heights, where I had lived. I had a lot of art. And chairBeach ofwent Community off without Board a hitch, 1’s until Landmarks Guy Fieri Committee.showed up at And2 the attraction of the space — the high ceilings — seemed great for me, personally.” private pool. And great for him financially, as well — Abrams’ pad Then there are new projects that have been on the mar- is now on the market for $8.99 million with broker Noble ket a bit longer, but are now commanding some of the city’s Black of the Corcoran Group. highest prices — like Franklin Place and 56 Leonard, the “You had these floor plates that lent themselves to larger, latter an enormous glass and steel Jenga tower, where avail- open plan loft living,” says developer Zach Vella of VE Eq- able units start at $2.875 million for a 1,027-square-foot uities, who is currently building two ground-up condos in one-bedroom. (A four-bedroom penthouse listed for $47 TriBeCa: 21 North Moore and 290 West St. “It gave you the million is currently in contract.) flexibility to do what you wanted without restrictions … Of course, architecture and residential development are they’re 5,000- to 10,000-square-foot floorplates.” only part of the story. “Services changed a ton, early on,” And older buildings like the Fischer Mills at 62 Beach St. says Vella. But TriBeCa somehow managed to steer clear and 45 Walker St. still offer lofts with 4,000 square feet of of the flood of chain stores — the “shopping mall effect” — space. that consumed SoHo. Sure, stores and boutiques came, but But regardless of the buildings’ history and sheer the streets remained walkable. amount of square footage, TriBeCa’s appeal is also in its “I remember there was a deli that opened across the unique architecture. street from our office,” says Jane Rosenthal, who is De “It’s somewhere between the industrial and classical Niro’s partner at Tribeca Productions. “It was like, ‘Wow, world,” says architect Morris Adjmi, the neighborhood’s there’s suddenly a deli [that] opened up!’ ” most prolific design mind, whose projects — including 403 In the early 1980s, a young Drew Nieporent went jogging Greenwich St. (a ground-up modern take on a cast-iron along West Broadway and discovered an empty restaurant building) and 83 Walker (another tribute to cast iron) — space. It became one of the big players of the neighborhood, are a throwback to the area’s best traditions. “People see Montrachet. that as being authentic and real,” Adjmi says, “as opposed “It was quiet, the streets were cobblestone and large, and to moving in to just another new development. It’s embrac- it was removed from Wall Street — we took a gamble on ing the history.” leasing the space,” says Nieporent. “But I was fortunate. I Some buildings, like 7 Harrison, Steven Harris’ 12-unit hired a young chef named David Bouley, so what we had in building in a former dry goods and cold storage warehouse, our favor was expertise and a $16 menu with three courses.” will keep the brick look of yore when it is completed next (Corton, Montrachet’s successor in the same location, year. Same goes for the 53-unit 443 Greenwich St. (a former was offering a $115 menu this summer.) printing house and steel wool factory), which Metro Lofts De Niro approached Nieporent a few years after Mon- is putting on the market next year and should be done in trachet opened with the idea of another restaurant, which 2015.