Tribeca warehouse to be part of new Hudson center hotel

Real Estate Weekly, April 12, 1995

A five-story, brick warehouse designed by Thomas R. Jackson and built in 1882 at the comer of Vestry and Washington Streets will house the public spaces of a new hotel, according to the developer's plans. This historic warehouse, which lies within a landmarked district, will be restored to reflect its original character and will be connected to a new 19-story hotel at the comer of West and Laight Streets, which lies outside the landmarked district.

The building was left in a state of advanced disrepair after American Savings Bank, the now defunct White Plains-based savings bank, foreclosed its mortgage around 1989. Its intended redevelopment as an office building failed during construction. The designation in 1991 of the Tribeca North Historic District left the building with a preservation cost well in excess of its renovated value. It was then that American Savings Bank turned to the Brewran/Carl Marks team, owner of an adjacent site, to produce a logical redevelopment plan including its building. The bank's affiliate corporation, which owned the building, became a joint venture partner of Brewran/Carl Marks. The joint venture has since included an additional property in the assemblage.

"The redevelopment plan is a triple win," said Martin Schiffman, the managing director of Carl Marks responsible for the firm's real estate activity. "The incentive of additional development rights from joining the parcels gives the community a restored building, the bank's successor a unique opportunity to recoup its investment in a Bank asset, and the city a project worthy of Downtown and West Side rejuvenation efforts." He further noted that the reduction in the City' s hotel occupancy tax is "helping to fuel a resurgent hotel market, making hospitality development the viable investment option for the site's use."

The development team has since taken steps to stabilize the warehouse, a condition imposed by the Landmarks Preservation Commission when it approved the overall hotel project in the Fall of 1994 and granted a Certificate of Appropriateness for both the warehouse and the tower. Mark Levine, a partner of Sive, Paget & Riesel, the project's attorney, said that unique site conditions presents a basis for a contemplated action by the NYC Board of Standards and Appeals. The proposed tower portion on the West Street site is larger than the site would allow under the zoning resolution, but is consistent in height with other tall buildings in the Tribeca area and significantly lower than buildings along West Street.

To be known as The Hudson Hotel and Conference Center, with an expected affiliation with one of the large national hotel chains, the new hotel will offer about 340 guest rooms, as well as a concierge floor and business center. It will also offer a 14,250 square-foot conference center, including meeting rooms and a noise attenuated ballroom. At street level, guests will find a restaurant and bar on the Washington Street side in keeping with the neighbor-hood's character, and an impressive lobby on West Street. The development cost is estimated at $50 million.

Though first class in its facilities and amenities, according to the developers, the hotel rates will be in the moderate range designed to attract both business guests and tourists, thereby addressing the city's stated desire to draw out-of-town visitors to the Downtown area.

Stanton Eckstut, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, was selected as architect for the project in part because of his firm's wide reputation in the field of historic preservation, and the design of new buildings that are made especially appropriate to their surroundings, the developers noted. Ehrenkrantz & Eckstut Architects were preservation architects for the U.S. Custom House in lower Manhattan, the Dakota Apartments, the landmark Police Building and the facade of the Woolworth Building.

"The Hudson Hotel will make an enormous contribution to the city and Tribeca community," said A. Alex Lari, president of the Brewran Group of Companies, "and it is entirely in keeping with the Mayor's plan for revitalizing lower Manhattan. It will also provide a significant source of entry level employment, a labor segment that the City desperately needs to address." An attractive restaurant and shopping arcade will be built on Washington Street to enhance the neighborhood.

Noting that lower Manhattan is the nation's third largest business district, after Midtown Manhattan and the Chicago Loop, Lari said a moderate priced hotel was needed. There is no other such hotel in the area. The Marriott, the Millennium and the Vista Hotel are all priced significantly higher, he said.

Sufficient parking will be secured for the hotel in the areas many parking garages.

"Manhattan has lost thousands of jobs to outlying areas in the past ten years," Schiffman said, "and this hotel will help us compete. It is closer to the Financial District than the new hotels on the other side of the Hudson, and it is close to the Holland Tunnel, the other end of which is about 15 minutes from Newark International Airport, where the major air traffic growth has taken place in the Metropolitan area. We will attract business travelers and tourists visiting the New York Stock Exchange, the Statue of Liberty, the Convention Center and the super liner terminal."