The new 15 Central Park West development will overlook Central Park and have 20- and 43-story wings. (Rendering by dBox).

Mayflower Hotel Site to Become $1 Billion Complex

Work is underway on a two-building residential complex at 15 Central Park West, a site assembled over decades. Meanwhile, a restoration and renovation of the Woolworth Building moves forward.

New Condo Tower for West Side

Construction is underway on a $1 billion residential complex on an entire city block bordered by Central Park West, 61st and 62nd streets, and Broadway in Manhattan.

New York-based Zeckendorf Development, partnering with Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds and Global Holdings, both also based in New York, bought the 57,900-sq.-ft. parcel that a previous owner had assembled over a 30-year period. The parcel's main feature was the former Mayflower Hotel, which closed last November.

The project team finished demolishing the hotel - floor by floor - in July. Other buildings had been demolished nearly 20 years ago, leaving parts of the site vacant.

The new development, 15 Central Park West, is slated for completion in spring 2007, with Bovis Lend Lease of New York managing construction. Designed in neo-classical style by New York-based Robert A.M. Stern Architects, the reinforced concrete building will have 20- and 43-story wings connected at the base. SLCE Architects of New York is the architect of record.

The building's 202 condominium residences will range from 1,000 to 7,000 sq. ft. in size and have 10- to 14-ft. ceiling heights. It will also have 29 smaller suites for guests and staff. The condominiums will sell for between $2 million and $41 million.

Building amenities will include a private garden, a cobblestone motor court, and a competition-size swimming pool as part of a 13,000-sq.-ft. fitness center. The complex includes a five-story retail component at the base and a 35 by 45 ft. lobby on the Central Park West side.

The 886,000-sq.-ft. building will be clad entirely in limestone from the recently reopened Empire Quarry in Bloomington, Ind., the source of stone for the Empire State Building and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

N.J. School to Replace Stadium

The New Jersey Schools Construction Corp. is building a new $136 million high school in Union City, replacing the municipality's Roosevelt Stadium.

The new Emerson High School and rooftop athletic complex is one of six projects the agency is undertaking in a program to create new facilities that allow community access and that leverage private investment for other development, such as housing, all to revitalize underserved communities.

Epic Management of Piscataway, N.J., is construction manager on the 425,000-sq.-ft. school, which will have 66 classrooms to accommodate up to 1,700 students. It will also have a 1,000-seat auditorium, 21,000-sq.-ft. gymnasium, and 12,000-sq.-ft. media center.

The project team began demolishing the current stadium earlier this year. The new school will have a 4,000-person athletic field on the roof. The school is scheduled to open in fall 2008.

Built in 1937 by the federal Works Progress Administration, the stadium seated 13,000. An effort by local citizens to preserve the facility failed, despite renovations to it in 1985. Then-Gov. James McGreevey first announced the school project to replace the stadium in 2003.

The project will receive money from the remaining $1.4 billion in the state school construction agency's budget. That sum will fund the completion of only 59 of the 270 school projects for high-need districts that the state department of education identified earlier this year.

One Carnegie Hill Topped Out

One Carnegie Hill, a new 42-story residential building by the Related Companies on Manhattan's Upper East Side, marked its structural topping out over the summer. The building at 215 East 96th St. will have 447 units, split between 200 condominiums and 247 rental apartments.

Designed by New York-based HLW International, the Rockwell Group, and Ismael Levya, the new 290,000 sq. ft. building will have a brick and glass façade, two underground floors for parking, and a third-floor facility with building amenities, including a swimming pool.

HRH Construction is construction manager on the $77 million project, which is scheduled for completion in next fall.

Woolworth's Façade Restoration

Cass Gilbert's Woolworth Building at 233 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, completed in 1913, is getting a $2.2 million facelift to renovate its historic exterior features.

Façade Maintenance Design of New York is architect on the exterior renovation of the 57-story landmark. The project involves restoring damaged limestone, resealing 25,000 sq. ft. of copper mansard roofs, and repair or replacement of more than 600 terra cotta stones.

Both the architect and the general contractor on the job, Seaboard Weatherproofing and Restoration of Port Chester, N.Y., also handled the exterior and roof restoration earlier this year on another Gilbert-designed landmark several blocks away, 90 West Street, which had suffered extensive façade damage in the World Trade Center attacks in 2001.

Completion of the Woolworth restoration is scheduled for the end of the year, with additional stone replacement extending into next year.

The Witkoff Group, based in New York, bought the building in 1998. It had previously announced a plan to convert office space from the 29th to the 57th floors into 145 residential units, and had won approval for $80 million in Liberty Bonds to help fund the project.

But in a filing with the New York City Department of Buildings earlier this year, the owner noted that the conversion project was "no longer proposed." Witkoff did not return a call requesting comment on the change in plans.

New Condos for Hudson Square

A new 11-story, 65-unit luxury condo on the site of a former parking lot topped out this summer. The developer, Metropolitan Housing Partners, is building its new 255 Hudson Street to conform to local zoning regulations while also aiming for an upscale clientele.

Designed by New York-based Handel Architects, the building will be clad in concrete, zinc, and blue-tinted glass. As a result of zoning rules affecting the back portion of the lot, the ground floor will feature three duplexes with private backyards.

This is Metropolitan's second building in Hudson Square after 505 Greenwich St., a 14-story residential building that opened last spring.

New York-based Gotham Construction, the general contractor, broke ground in January, with occupancy slated for summer 2006. The construction budget is $33 million.

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