Construction Boom

New Residential Buildings Slated for Battery Park City.

By Mark A. Newman

Despite the down economy, there is a construction boom in downtown Manhattan.

By the time you read this, the Solaire, the first green high-rise in the country will be almost filled with tenants, said Anthony Woo, Battery Park City Authority's vice president of construction.

"We took a lot of the green components from other projects around the world and put them all in a single building, which has never been done before," he said. He added that the BPCA's strict guidelines have not deterred developers in the least, which is evident by new construction all over the neighborhood.

Woo said each site is work well over $100 million.

advertisement

Millennium Partners won the bid on site 2A across from the Ritz Carlton in the south neighborhood for a residential building. Millennium bid for a market rate building without any type of subsidy, which is the first market rate building commissioned downtown since Sept. 11, Woo said.

Two more projects will be breaking ground in 2004: site 18B by the Albanese Organization and site 19B by Related Companies, which, along with site 2A, will all be high-rise residential buildings and will provide 984 more homes to the neighborhood.

"Battery Park City is a vibrant sub-market in the best real estate market in the world," said Steve Ross, chairman/CEO of Related Companies. "Without the authority, this site would not be nearly as successful."

Timothy S. Carey, BPCA president and CEO, said that by the end of the year, he hopes to have two more sites on the market: site 3 in the south is for a 525,000-sq.-ft. residential building - with an estimated value of $120 million to $150 million - and site 16/17 will be home to a 560,000-sq.-ft. residential building worth $150 million to $175 million.

Carey added that site 26 is available for anyone who wants to develop up to 1.8 million sq. ft. of commercial space.

He said the reason for the upswing in residential construction is because there is always a need for more apartments in Manhattan, and the Liberty Bond financing and 421A program have made it affordable and profitable for developers to build.

Buildings are not the only things being created in Battery Park City. Two new ball fields were designed by HOK Planning, construction management by The LiRo Group and general contracting by Sonic Construction, Inc. Metrotech Contracting Corp. did the lighting and electrical work. They are near completion in the north neighborhood, as is the 2.5-acreTeardrop Park designed by renowned landscape architects Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. to be reminiscent of the Hudson River Valley. Teardrop Park will open fall 2004.

Humphreys & Harding is the construction manager for Teardrop Park. The land was originally going to be used as private courtyard space, but Carey saw the four buildings at the park's corners envisioned as mountains in upstate New York so he convinced the city to rezone a portion of the neighborhood to take away a street.

The park will include a 13-ft.-high weeping blue stone wall, a reading circle and a pond where children can splash around and discover hidden treasures such as brass frogs and salamanders under some of the stones. There also will be blueberry, blackberry and raspberry bushes.

Related articles (BPCA Profile):
	Manhattan's Riviera Not even catastrophe could keep Battery Park City down.
	Going Green Downtown Battery Park City's residential buildings are almost greener than its parks.
	Neighborhood Watch When the world changed on Sept. 11, Battery Park City responded without hesitation.