ANOTHER proposed Santiago Calatrava tower is not just getting its wings clipped; it’s biting the dust.
This project was eagerly awaited for a small site at 80 South St. by the East River and featured townhomes in the sky.
The design called for an 835-foot tall tower with a dozen “Sky Cube” townhouses alternating around a central core so that one’s roof would become the outdoor garden for the cube above and to the side. An antenna was to bring the entire structure to 1,000 feet. Its base was being pitched to cultural, retail and office users.
The architecturally significant tower was introduced to much critical acclaim and a price tag of around $35 million per multi-story residence.
“The price reflects both design and quality,” developer Frank Sciame told us at the time, “and it will be the most expensive residential tower in the city.”
Back at the end of 2005, and throughout 2006 and 2007, the potential prices inspired much awe – and apparently not a lot of takers.
Oddly, while the site is now on the market and expected to fetch around $115 million, equating to $400 per buildable foot, in the last year, the luxury market has racked up many sales higher than that benchmark, albeit in more traditional locations, such as around Central Park.
The Power Trio of Jimmy “King” Kung, David Noonan and Jennifer Schwartzman have just been hired by the investor group that includes Sciame and Cord Meyer Development to market the 8,128-foot parcel at South and Fletcher streets that holds up to 288,670 feet of development with no height restriction. While all of it can be developed as commercial or hotel space, as much as 144,318 feet can be residential.
“It’s an exciting vision that got worldwide attention,” said Noonan. “The buyer can build their own vision.”
It appears at least one other developer has already scoped this out. Cook + Fox architects created and posted renderings of a “competition submission” on their Web site that was described as a “constructible solution for a small urban site.”
The designs include an “80” on the tower’s entrance and it’s located in the right spot on the waterfront. A city sleuth discovered the drawings and reposted them on Wired New York.
A spokeswoman for Cook + Fox, Alice Hartley told us the renderings were created for a private developer who requested proposals from five firms about six months ago and has declined to be identified. Apparently, however, it is neither Sciame nor Cord Meyer.
The Cook + Fox design has already won an American Institute of Architects New York City award.
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While the nation is enthralled by the contestants for “American Idol,” the real estate industry already has its own. The American Real Estate Idol, Mary Ann Tighe, and her co-broker at CB Richard Ellis, Gregory Tosko, picked up the top Henry Hart Rice Award last night from the Real Estate Board of New York for the Sales Brokers’ Most Ingenious Deal of the Year 2007.
This was the sixth time that Tighe has won one of the three awards and her third first-place finish. This was Tosko’s fourth win.
Their winning leasing transaction entitled, “Adding Color to Grey: The Winding Road to Grey Group’s 370,000 square foot Anchor Lease at 200 Fifth Ave,” brought an important tenant to the former Toy Center – that was slated for residential conversion – while invigorating Madison Square Park and the trendy Flatiron District with more hip employees working in a cool build-out.
The second place Robert T. Lawrence Award was won by Moshe Sukenik and Noonan of Newmark Knight Frank for a sale and leaseback deal titled, “The Land Swap that led to the new Lincoln Square Synagogue.”
The duo arranged a complex land assemblage that allowed the creation of the largest new synagogue in Manhattan since Temple Emanu-El in 1927.
This is Sukenik’s second win. The third place Edward S. Gordon Award was presented to Andrew J. Singer and Kathleen McSharry of The Singer & Bassuk Organization for the finance deal at 50 Murray Street that enabled the ground lessor, World-Wide Holdings, to arrange replacement permanent financing for its luxury rental housing development. This is the team’s third win.
The awards were handed out at the annual REBNY Sales Brokers Committee cocktail party last night at the 101 Club.
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Hakimian has obtained $200 million in construction financing at 636 Eleventh Ave. for the build-out of the Ogilvy & Mather space. Financing was arranged by Scott Singer of The Singer & Bassuk Organization through the German banks, Bayerische Landesbank and PB Capital.
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A tipster tells us that a publishing company, after getting thisclose to a deal to move Downtown to a building repped by its broker’s company, is now scouting other locations with brokers from other com panies. The build ing’s agent called us from his vacation to advise they were in “serious final negotiations” and it’s news to him.
