A Hotel Grows in Brooklyn

Just seven years after the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge became Brooklyn's first new hotel since 1934, a brightening tourist picture is fueling a $77 million, 190,000-sq.-ft. expansion. "We don't have the room base" to meet demand, said Mike Brenner, senior vice president at Muss Development, the hotel's New York-based owner, which is also developer and construction manager on the project.

Located at Renaissance Plaza in downtown Brooklyn, the 24-story addition designed by San Francisco-based SB Architects will increase the hotel's capacity from 376 to 656 rooms. A two-level pedestrian bridge will link the poured-in-place concrete structure to the existing building. Completion is scheduled for fall 2006.

Empire State Gets High-Rise Neighbor

Diagonally across from the Empire State Building, one of Manhattan's largest residential projects is underway on Fifth Avenue between 32nd and 33rd streets. Levine Builders of Douglaston in Queens has begun foundation work on 325 Fifth Avenue, a $95.5 million, 41-story tower.

Designed by Stephen B. Jacobs Group of Manhattan, the 390,000-sq.-ft., cast-in-place concrete building will have 250 apartments, 6,000 sq. ft. of retail space, and an underground parking garage. Completion is scheduled for late 2006, said Jeffrey Levine, president of Levine Builders. The project developer is a joint venture between a Levine affiliate, Douglaston Development, and New Jersey-based Continental Properties.

Levine has two other large Manhattan residential projects in progress, both designed by Jacobs Group. A $120 million, 320,000-sq.-ft. project at 555 West 23rd St., with 337 rental units, is scheduled for completion by mid-year. And a 54,000-sq.-ft., $13.3 million complex at 244 East 25th St. has topped out and is on track to open with 54 units in the third quarter of this year, Levine said.

New Stamford Development

Construction is underway on the first major development in 20 years in downtown Stamford, Conn. Mill River House, a $25 million luxury complex, will also be the city's first to incorporate an affordable housing component.

Under city guidelines, 11 of the project's 92 units will be reserved for medium-income owners, said Seth Weinstein, principal of Hannah Real Estate Investors. The Stamford-based firm is developing the project in a joint venture with Paxton and Ray Kinol, also of Stamford. It is the first major private project to be built under a new plan encouraging development along the Mill River.

The project is reclaiming the one-and-a-half-acre site of an abandoned automobile dealership. Triton Environmental of Guilford, Conn., supervised site remediation, which required hazardous material abatement, demolition, and removal of contaminated soils, Weinstein said. Designed by Beinfield Architects of South Norwalk, Conn., the four-and-a-half-story timber-frame, brick-clad building will sit on top of a poured-in-place concrete garage. Completion is slated for this fall.

New Space for Old Firm

A 460,000-sq.-ft. renovation is complete at the 19-year-old One World Financial Center tower in Downtown Manhattan. The space's tenant, the 213-year-old law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, declined to disclose costs. But the 11-month project required gutting and rebuilding 13 and a half of the building's 40 stories, said Dennis Squilla, managing partner for Jones Lang LaSalle, which served as owner's representative.

Designed by Butler Rogers Baskett of New York City, the renovation created three conference floors, partner offices, a cafeteria and full kitchen, administrative offices, and a fitness center. Thornton-Tomasetti Group, the tower's original structural engineer, supervised a structural reinforcement that included the addition of steel beams to several floors to handle increased loads.

Squilla said that several key strategies controlled costs and quality. For some specialties, such as electrical, HVAC, and sprinklers, the team engaged multiple subcontractors, encouraging each of those subs to send teams of their best people, Squilla said. As owner's representative, Jones Lang LaSalle had a strong say in selection of subcontractors by Lehr Construction of New York, the construction manager. The owner also paid subs directly, speeding payment and generating favorable prices that "probably saved about 10 percent in construction costs," Squilla said.

L.I. Office Complex Finishing

The second and final phase of the tri-state area's largest speculative suburban office project is headed for completion this fall on Long Island, according to the developer, Reckson Realty Associates of Melville, N.Y. A $60 million building at 68 South Service Rd. in Melville will complete Reckson Executive Park, which consists of twin buildings, each of 277,000 sq. ft. Reckson completed the first building in 2001 at a comparable cost, said Ken Bauer, senior vice president and co-director of the company's Long Island division.

Designed and built in-house by Reckson, the four-story, steel-frame building will have an exterior skin of composite granite panels combined with an aluminum-framed, reflective glass curtainwall, Bauer said. Key facilities will include high-tech training rooms, a 140-seat auditorium, wireless networking, and an indoor executive parking garage.

Bellevue Opens Pei Cobb-Designed Wing

Marking a milestone for a venerable New York institution, Bellevue Hospital Center opened a $115 million, 207,000-sq.-ft. Ambulatory Care Pavilion in March after three years of construction. Turner Construction of New York, the construction manager, completed the five-and-a-half-story, steel-frame facility at First Avenue between 27th and 28th streets on the former site of a parking garage.

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners of New York, the project architect, designed a 90-ft.-tall atrium for the main entrance and a masonry and curtainwall exterior. The building houses a wide range of services: primary care, cancer care, radiology, adult specialties, pediatrics, women's health, and psychological services, plus a business office and auditorium.

Vintage Townhouse Revived

Manhattan's housing demand is driving creative renovation and re-use projects, including a recently completed $3 million renovation of a 100-year-old Greek Revival townhouse in Greenwich Village by Manhattan-based Blesso Properties. The building had been vacant except for Marco New York, a ground floor restaurant that continues at the location. The project involved gutting and rebuilding the four-story townhouse at 142 West 10th St.

Scarano & Associates of Manhattan, the project architect, divided the building into two duplexes, a single-floor unit, and a new penthouse. It also designed a contemporary living area, said Gonzalo Fernandez, Scarano's project manager. Sukamo Construction, the general contractor, removed about half of the building's timber beams and replaced them with steel C-joists, said Matthew Blesso, president of Blesso.

Several miles to the north, in Harlem, Blesso plans a different kind of residential makeover, converting a long-vacant eight-story building into a 21-unit condominium complex. Scarano is also architect for that $8 million project, which will add four stories to the building for a total of 52,000 sq. ft. Eight to 12 months of construction will begin shortly, said Blesso, who added that he had not yet selected a contractor.

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