Tribeca 'Townhouse' Battle at West St. Condo Conversion

[Photos via PropertyShark]

Last November, Elad Properties sold 250 West Street to a group of Russian investors for $250 million, after having purchased the Tribeca building from Citigroup about 18 month before for just $142 million. Those investors would now like to make some money, thankyouverymuch, so the plan is to convert the 11-story building into 80 or 90 condos, with a 5,000-square-foot penthouse built as a rooftop addition. The plan calls for a 2010 move-in date, but this, friends, is the Tribeca North Historic District, and so the plan must make its way through both Community Board 1 and the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Downtown Express reports that the developers also want to replace the building’s cornice, redo the main entrance and add townhouse entrances around the building.

It's that latter suggestion that already has Community Board 1?yes that Community Board 1?in a tizzy. UK firm David Chipperfield Architects wants to replace the 52 ground-level windows and create 10 townhouse entrances around the building, because "townhouses" tucked into fancy new condo buildings is the latest luxury development trend (and a way to add cachet to ground-floor apartments). The paper reports that at a recent board meeting, CB1 "overwhelmingly disapproved" this idea. We can only imagine what colorful language they used to do so.
· C.B. 1 steps on stoop idea for Tribeca townhouses [Downtown Express]