Photo of the site (courtesy of Google Maps)
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Woah. This is huge. This has been in the works for some time. Glad to see it progressing. Wish it was a little taller
West Village Skyscraper Gets Financing
The first ever skyscraper in the West Village, at an “unprecedented” height of 450’, is planned for the full block at Washington Street and Houston Street. This rendering of the proposed towers is a view looking southeast from West Street and Leroy Street, at the south edge of the West Village. It is directly across Houston Street from 550 Washington Street, the office project that Google acquired for $2.1 billion last year.
570 Washington Street, aka Clarkson Square, has now gotten financing to proceed. A joint venture comprised of Zeckendorf Development, Atlas Capital, and the Baupost Group secured a $322 million loan from investment giant Blackstone to acquire the full-block 1.3-acre site from Westbrook Partners, according to a report by Greg Dool in The Real Deal, July 8, 2022. Boston-based Baupost has been active in the city, most recently selling the American Copper Buildings in Murray Hill. Atlas Capital is one of the initial investors in the property.
The CookFox Architects designs are for the $1.25 billion two-tower luxury development, one tower along West Street overlooking the Hudson River, the other smaller one facing east on Washington Street. Initially, the developers included plans for 30 percent “affordable” and “senior” housing units, for a total of 1.7million square feet of floor area. A building of such height was made possible by being outside any historic district, with modified manufacturing zoning, and having purchased development air-rights from Pier 40/Hudson River Park.
There’s a real challenge to building on a flood plain, an in-filled shoreline that was once under the Hudson River, along a busy highway. Excavation and construction has not yet started on the barren, fenced site.
Rendering Credit: CookFox Architects.
Brian J. Pape is a citizen architect in private practice, LEED-AP “green” certified, serving on the Manhattan District 2 Community Board Landmarks Committee and Quality of Life Committee (speaking solely in a personal, not an official capacity. He is also co-chair of the American Institute of Architects NY Design for Aging Committee, a member of AIANY Historic Buildings and Housing Committees, and a journalist specializing in architecture subjects.
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Westviewnews
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That is great news: this tower design is beautiful. I was concerned that the intent was to build another classical “limestone Jesus” - for me, that would be a real disappointment.
I am glad someone made a sensible decision on this; and has gone with a completely modernist building design.
https://nypost.com/2022/02/07/15-central-park-west-developer-to-build-1b-west-village-tower/
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These are beautiful towers.
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This is a good rendering of the building and surrounding area: well done architecture & illustrations. 
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I wonder if they’re going with one shorter tower instead of two taller ones.
The Yimby article seems to be missing a great deal of information regarding how this project is working, there will be two separate developments, the 19 story mixed-use development that is 170,000 sqft located along Washington St, and the 36 story larger luxury condo building taking over the rest of the site. But I can’t image that the height mentioned on Yimby is correct as 125’ is absurdly small for a 19 story building, that would only allow ~6.5’ per floor, which is not possible at all.
There is still “two” towers one taller and the other shorter, but they will be built separate of one another.
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Thanks, TKDV.
P.S.: Not to sound like a broken record, but these heinous warehouses on Washington and Greenwich must go.
It would be ideal if the city gave a developer extra air rights to build two taller towers on either end of the site in exchange for building a park in the middle.
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That is the only lot that is still been used as industrial/manufacturing in the Hudson Square area. The rest had been converted (very successfully) to commercial use.
Thanks AlgoNYC for the info.
I would love for the streets to be extended through this lot. The Google building did a good job at opening the south side of their building, adding a pedestrian connection to the river.
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I thought I had replied back to this a long time ago, but I don’t see UPS moving any time soon from that building, it’s their biggest distribution center in Manhattan and one of the biggest in the city.
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Maybe having all this new premium offices and residential development all around will make their land too valuable, and persuade them to sell it for a good buck,
… or maybe it is just wishful thinking.
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I mean that’s definitely always a possibility that I wouldn’t necessarily rule out. It’s just that distribution centers are normally spread out and where they are located now is fairly spread out amongst the city, so subtracting this center from that equation would put more demand on the others, especially when there is only 1 other one in Manhattan (Hell’s Kitchen). I think if anything happens, a new development on the site should try to include the distribution center in it’s program some how.
Otherwise I also agree with your past comment about the throughway plaza at the Google building, it’s just annoying that it would not/does not line up with Charlton St.
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Yes, I agree, the easiest solution will be to incorporate the UPS facility into the program. I believe they can optimize the use of this land to reduce their footprint and free space for other uses.
When they built this huge facilities this land was a wasteland, nobody wanted to be around it -times have changed
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Sorry, I know everyone hates a thread jump with no new info, but has anyone been by this site recently? Is there any progress? They got financing months ago, so I would have hoped something had happened by now.
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