Real Estate for Once-Gritty Tribeca, a Golden Glow

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For Once-Gritty TriBeCa, a Golden Glow

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 SAVESHARE O DIGGFACEBOOKMIXXYAHOO! BUZZPERMALINKBy DAVID W. DUNLAP Published: July 30, 2000 TRIBECA, the old butter-and-eggs district of Lower Manhattan, isn't sizzling any longer. It's deafening.

More than a dozen construction and large-scale renovation projects are clamoring simultaneously. Jackhammers and backhoes are carving up Greenwich Street, which is being narrowed to create more of a pedestrian promenade. Equipment in the telecommunications hub at 60 Hudson Street rumbles into the night.

With all the activity spurred by a robust economy, walking through the once- somnolent TriBeCa is now ''like walking through a war zone,'' said Madelyn Wils, the new chairwoman of Community Board 1, who has lived on Duane Street for 15 years.

But the din includes the playful shrieks of youngsters outside P.S. 234 on Chambers Street, a reminder that while TriBeCa has lost some of its diversity -- and the aroma of roasted coffee and roasted peanuts in the air -- it is ''much more of a neighborhood now than it ever was,'' in the words of Bill Barrett, a sculptor who has lived and worked on Worth Street since 1976.

Even after the opening of the swank TriBeCa Grand Hotel, even under the global spotlight that followed the late John F. Kennedy Jr., who lived on North Moore Street, TriBeCa is still small town -- albeit a town that is industrial at its Belgian- block, iron-canopy core, where residents fight for every inch of lawn and garden.

Its villagelike insularity extends to development, which is dominated not by the mid-Manhattan giants but by smaller builders, mostly in their 40's, many of them local, some of them architects.

What they are building, make no mistake, is housing for the rich. Lofts overlooking the Holland Tunnel exit command $1 million and more. Warehouses and factories where space rented for $1 a square foot in the 1960's are being sold as condominiums for $500 to $800 a square foot.

Roughly half of TriBeCa lies within four historic districts that were designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1991 and 1992. Jennifer J. Raab, the current chairwoman, sees TriBeCa as a ''textbook example of how economic development and preservation go hand in hand. ''The real estate market provided the investment that led to the stunning restoration of these gems,'' she said, ''but without historic preservation regulation, there would have been no guarantee that restorations and new construction would have been as sensitive, which would have limited the economic value of the investment.''

The rehabilitation of TriBeCa landmarks, though, has come literally at a high price.

''Their preservation and prettification proclaimed a new social reality,'' Joshua B. Freeman wrote in ''Working-Class New York'' (The New Press, 2000). ''Workers of the type who once created the wealth of Gotham in these very buildings could not afford to enter their portals, nor would they be made to feel welcome if they could.''

Carl Glassman, the editor of the monthly Tribeca Trib, belonged to a food co-op 20 years ago. There were no grocery stores then, let alone four-star restaurants.

''I bemoan the fact that only wealthy people can move into the neighborhood,'' he said. ''But I don't have bad feelings toward the people who do move in. I would posit that they are a different breed from other Wall Streeters or new-money types. If you're going to spend $2 million to live in a warehouse, you're different from somebody who wants to live in the suburbs.''

So, by and large, are the builders who cater to this market. Glenn D. McDermott, probably the busiest of the lot, has just formed Society B23, a nonprofit group whose mission, he said, is to ''preserve the lifestyle'' of the world below 23rd Street.

Mr. McDermott, 42, ran the Mudd Club on White Street in his youth and now runs GDM Projects, a 30-person design and development office in NoHo. He said he has 450,000 square feet of space in development in TriBeCa, with much more to come.

His 48 Laight Street project is a six-story loft with bold, horizontal bands of multipane windows along Hudson Street that create an industrial sense. The plan, designed by Dana Sottile of GDM, working with Fritz Johnson, won unanimous approval from the landmarks commission this month. ''We appreciated the architect's attempt to make a contextual but modern statement in a historic district,'' Ms. Raab said.

Before he can build, Mr. McDermott must win a variance from the Board of Standards and Appeals since this residential project is within an M1-5 manufacturing district.

Working with the Whitehall Fund, Mr. McDermott is developing 124 Hudson Street, a nine-story condo at Ericsson Place, one of the first big new buildings in the TriBeCa historic districts. It was designed by Byrns, Kendall & Schieferdecker.

The superstructure is barely up and 18 of the 26 units have been sold, at an average of $750 a square foot, said the broker, James Lansill, director of development at Stribling Marketing Associates. The project, to be completed next May, will cost about $40 million, including land and construction.

Five of the buyers are expectant couples, Mr. Lansill said. Evidently, they are undaunted about moving next to the Holland Tunnel exit plaza (a distant successor to St. John's Park), a tangle of roadway and lawn, with Mark di Suvero's ''Joie de Vivre'' sculpture at the center.

Both 124 Hudson Street and Cobblestone Lofts, on the north side of the plaza, will have double-pane windows with soundproofing laminate. Barrie Mandel, of the Corcoran Group, the broker for Cobblestone Lofts, said 24 of 29 units had been sold to buyers drawn by the prospect of southern views of open skies and a work by di Suvero.

With Arthur Fefferman and Mark Wallach, Mr. McDermott is developing the Fischer Mills Building at Greenwich and Beach Streets, a 32-unit condo created from 19th-century buildings with two- and three-story additions. The $40 million project, designed by Byrns, Kendall & Schieferdecker, will be largely finished this year.

Also on Mr. McDermott's plate are 3-9 Hubert Street, a 12-story apartment building that is to rise along tiny Collister Street, in a venture with the Whitehall Fund, and 161 Hudson Street, at Laight Street, a renovation that will include eight floors of apartments and offices, with a penthouse. John Petrarca, 48, a partner in the architectural firm Guenther Petrarca and a 20- year TriBeCa resident, is another ubiquitous figure. A leader in the ''Greening of Greenwich'' project, to broaden and relandscape the pedestrian way on Greenwich Street, he is also working on ''Hidden TriBeCa,'' an illustrated book on the distinctive penthouses sprouting around the area.

He is developing the Reade Street Townhouses, five single-family homes on Reade and Greenwich Streets, one of which will be his. The other occupants come from the advertising, entertainment, financial and garment industries. All are under 50. All have children. At 40 Laight Street, a seven-story warehouse, Mr. Petrarca is designing a 14-unit condominium conversion for Bernhardt Development and Geometry Realty.

FOR Robert A. Levine, of the R.A.L. Companies of Hempstead, N.Y., Mr. Petrarca is designing Tower 270, the renovation of the 28-story Arthur Levitt State Office building at 270 Broadway, on Chambers Street, as residential and office space. The broker, Bruce L. Ehrmann, vice president of Stribling Marketing Associates, said the rehabilitation of City Hall Park made this location central to TriBeCa. The project will be finished in 2001.

Mr. Levine, 49, who has worked as a designer and planner, developed the Franklin Tower condominium, a renovated 17-story building at Franklin and Church Streets. Mr. Petrarca was the architect.

Another architect-developer, 47-year-old Aldo Andreoli of Sanba Design and Development Consultants, is creating 12 condos out of an exceptionally handsome 113-year-old former wrapping-paper factory at 140 Franklin Street. Mr. Andreoli has commissioned a lobby mural from Sol LeWitt.

To the north on Varick Street is the 17-story Atalanta, a former warehouse from which some 250 new windows have been carved, in a design by Richard Cook & Associates. The developers include Robert Tiburzi of Houlihan-Parnes Realtors; Angelo Cosentini and John Carson, partners in On the Level Enterprises, a construction company; Michael Greco and John Jacobson.

Mr. Cosentini, 41, and Mr. Carson, 44, are partners with Tom Currier in 58 Thomas Street, a new seven-story, six-unit building for which ground was broken last month. The architects are DeLaCour & Ferrara, who designed 5 Harrison Street, a new six-story, eight-unit building, for Mr. Currier and Philip Mendlow. Mr. Currier, 41, has lived on Jay Street since 1992.

An exception to the home-grown rule is the TriBeCa Grand Hotel, 2 Avenue of the Americas, developed by Hartz Mountain Industries, which opened in May. Its 203 rooms are arranged around a trapezoidal, eight-story atrium. The architect of record was John Prince, but Emanuel Stern, the president of Hartz Mountain, credited his father, Leonard, with much of the design.

''He wanted a building that echoed the architectural character of the neighborhood,'' the younger Mr. Stern said.

Not every developer strives to be contextual. The Munitions Building condo at 60 Warren Street, and West Broadway, has a boxy four-story addition atop an intricately detailed five-story 1860's structure. The developers said they saved the building, which is outside the historic district and landmarks regulation, by making it economically viable. That is not how neighbors see it.

''The level of angst over 60 Warren has been astonishing -- people in court, emergency meetings of neighborhood groups, the community board up in arms,'' said Hal Bromm, president of the Historic Districts Council. Mr. Bromm, an art dealer and interior designer, has lived in TriBeCa since the early 70's and was a founder in 1984 of the Committee for the Washington Market Historic District, which sought a broader landmarked area than was designated.

Angst has also greeted the conversion of the former Western Union Building, 60 Hudson Street, between Thomas and Worth Streets, into a telecommunications center filled with mechanical equipment.

''I hear that building and I'm over at Independence Plaza, on the 20th floor,'' said Councilwoman Kathryn E. Freed, who represents Lower Manhattan.

The argument that 60 Hudson Street has always been a communications hub does not persuade Mr. Ehrmann, who has lived across Worth Street for 12 years with his wife, Sandi Slone, an artist. ''That's like saying trolley tracks used to run down Broadway, so let's put in a jetport,'' he said. The building is ''making every possible effort to minimize noise,'' said Robert B. Getreu, senior managing director of GVA Williams, the managing agent for 60 Hudson Street. For example, he said, there are sound attenuators on all generators and new noise standards for tenants. Cooling towers are being erected on the rooftop, to keep heat exhaust away from neighbors.

''We end up being the scapegoat for the additional activity in TriBeCa,'' Mr. Getreu said. ''It becomes frustrating. Everyone wants high tech in Manhattan. Our infrastructure is what allows that to be here. Then they say, 'Your infrastructure affects the people around you.' ''

Residents of TriBeCa are also anxious about two city-owned development parcels. Last month, the Economic Development Corporation designated Halpern/Plaza Development Associates, which includes the Fisher family's Plaza Construction Corporation, to build a 13-story apartment building on a site known as 5C, bounded by Chambers, West and Warren Streets.

THE big question at Site 5C for the community is how much indoor recreational space, if any, the developers will provide. ''We have a huge population growth down here and they are all families,'' Ms. Freed said.

Last month, the city requested proposals for a commercial building on the two-acre Site 5B, between Murray and Warren Streets, prompting concerns about ''massive development encroaching on a residential neighborhood,'' Ms. Wils said.

These sites are the last open parcels in the 39-year-old Washington Street Urban Renewal Area, created by the clearance of 25 blocks along Washington Street, once the spine of a wholesale food district anchored at the south by the Washington Market hall.

The east edge of the renewal area, from Chambers to Hubert Streets, is being transformed by the $3 million ''Greening of Greenwich'' project under the Economic Development Corporation. The roadbed is being narrowed to create a pedestrian corridor with honey locust, maple and birch trees, benches, bike racks, a serpentine walkway and space for a farmers' market. The project was designed by Signe Nielsen Landscape Architecture, which was also responsible for the recent recreation of Duane Park to evoke its lush, undulating appearance in the late 19th century. This $180,000 project was undertaken by the Friends of Duane Park, led by Lynn Ellsworth and her husband, William Duggan, and Deborah Allen and her husband, Oliver E. Allen, the author of ''Tales of Old Tribeca'' (The Tribeca Trib, 1999).

The Allens moved to Hudson Street in 1982. ''Two years later, and we wouldn't have been able to afford it,'' he said. One index of the astonishing change in the neighborhood can be had at street fairs. ''You've never seen so many people under three feet high,'' Mr. Allen marveled.

Steven Wils also noticed the growing number of children in the neighborhood, but it made him anxious. He operated Harry Wils & Company on Duane Street, across from the park, with 18 trucks coming and going around the clock, laden with butter, eggs, cheese, olives, chocolate, spices and oils.

''If there were 50 kids, now there were 150,'' Mr. Wils said. ''It just wasn't safe anymore.'' Happily accustomed to living over the store, Mr. Wils reluctantly moved the business to Secaucus, N.J., in 1998.

He and his wife, the community board chairwoman, still live over the store, only the store is now a row of fine antique and furniture dealers, including Room.

Mr. Wils was the last butter-and-egg man but there is still an aromatic trace of Washington Market downwind of Transit Trading Corporation, 29 Leonard Street. ''We're the only ones left,'' said the middle-aged man on the loading dock, before refusing further word and withdrawing behind sacks of oregano, fennel and caraway.

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