The New York Post published an article on Thursday identifying a trend of hot NYC restaurants taking down their outdoor dining structures. They identified a few restaurants around the city that have removed their sheds, such as Locanda Verde, Keen’s Steakhouse, and Buddakan, but they noted that, among others, Tamarind Tribeca’s “truly charming, creative treasure” still stands and deserved to survive.
Coincidentally, I was walking by Tamarind today and I noticed that one of their outdoor dining sheds is being taken down, so Steve Cuozzo might be out of luck on that one. (By the way, Steve, I also hope that Don Angie’s structure survives!)
I mentioned in an article last week that the scaffolding around 99 Hudson had been taken down, revealing the full extent of how grimy the dining structures at Tamarind had become after a couple years of steady use (including from me). I had hoped that they would either be removed or revitalized, so maybe somebody from Tamarind is an AlgoNYC reader, but I couldn’t find anybody to confirm that they’re all being removed, so Steve still might have a sliver of hope.
A partially deconstructed dining shed at Tamarind.One of Tamarind’s dining structures with graffiti on it.
Nevertheless, the Post is spot on in identifying the beginning of a trend. By my unofficial count, in Tribeca north of Duane Street, Locanda Verde, Jungsik, Wolfgang’s, Paisley, L’Angolo (now closed), Greca, and possibly now Tamarind have all removed their outdoor dining structures.
Still standing are One White Street, Mr. Chow, Sushi Azabu, Estancia 460, The Odeon, Bubby’s, Frenchette, Tribeca Grill, Chanson, Sarabeths, Scalini Fedeli, Yves, Terroir, Khe-yo, and I’m sure plenty of others.
Given the popularity of outdoor dining and the forthcoming release of New York City’s Permanent Open Restaurants Program, which will be run by NYC DOT, I have to assume that the restaurants who took their structures down will be applying for new outdoor dining areas in accordance with the permanent regulations sometime in the spring.
New York City’s concept for permanent outdoor dining.
According to the DOT’s website, applications for that program open this winter and the program will launch this year, but we won’t be seeing plywood sheds or elaborate structures. The city’s permanent concept is more simple, calling essentially for removable tables and chairs with umbrellas surrounded by planters. This is an attempt to strike a balance between the high demand for outdoor dining when the weather is nice and the genuine concerns about quality of life/public health issues that arise from having real structures on the street (vermin, dirty streets, rundown sheds, poor visibility, etc.). We’ll know more as the weather turns warmer.
Below are a few nuggets from my daily travels around the neighborhood over the past week or so.
CycleBar Vacates the Retail Space at 415 Greenwich
I noticed a few days ago that CycleBar, located in the retail space of luxury residential condo building 415 Greenwich Street, seemed empty and suspected that they had closed. Today my hunch was confirmed by two big signs showing that the space is for lease. The brokers are Gary Alterman, Richard Gelber, and Andrew Stern of Newmark. Before CycleBar, FlyWheel occupied the space.
A big blue for rent sign in the window of 415 Greenwich’s retail space, previously occupied by CycleBar.
LTD Pizza Coming to Hudson Square?
I’m not sure when this went up, but I recently noticed bright yellow signage for a restaurant called LTD Pizza at 225 Hudson Street next to the Arlo SoHo hotel just north of Canal Street in Hudson Square. The only thing I can find on LTD Pizza is a branded Instagram page that references three people: Michael D’Armi, Dennis Arakelian, and John Villa.
Michael D’Armi is a private chef with prior experience as an executive chef at Avra Madison and executive sous chef at Lavo Restaurant & Nightclub. Dennis Arakelian runs a hospitality consulting business called DENYC Consulting with marketing experience at Tao Group (which owns Lavo). Chef John Villa is the culinary director of Tao Group. It’s always exciting to see new restaurants pop up, so I’m curious to hear more about their concept whenever more information comes out.
The retail space at 225 Hudson Street was previously occupied by Concepts, a streetwear company that focused on sneaker collaborations.
Signage showing a restaurant, LTD Pizza, at 225 Hudson Street.The old sign for Concepts still hangs.
Tamarind’s Sidewalk Shed Comes Down
All of my blog posts to date have contained sidewalk shed and scaffolding news, so it makes sense that this post would as well. The news here is that the sidewalk shed at 99 Hudson, whose retail tenant is the phenomenal Indian restaurant Tamarind, has recently been taken down. Sight lines down Hudson and Franklin are back, but the dining sheds still crowd that space. We’ll see if Tamarind does anything with them.
99 Hudson Street is no longer hidden by a sidewalk shed.
In other scaffolding-related news that will warm the hearts of Tribecans everywhere, the sidewalk shed that has covered Greca’s outdoor dining setup on Washington Street between Desbrosses and Watts since October 2020 has been taken down. Rejoice!
No more scaffolding on Washington Street, looking south from Watts.A view of Greca’s new outdoor area looking north from Desbrosses.
While Greca certainly did their best to make their sidewalk shed cozy for outdoor dining over the past two and a half years, they just couldn’t replicate the breezy vibe of their pre-covid, sun-drenched setup, which was undoubtedly one of the best outdoor cafes in Tribeca at the time. They didn’t have any tables or chairs out yet, but that’ll likely change when the weather gets better. This is a positive development for that stretch of Washington Street, which has been dotted with construction for years: the development of Hotel Barrière Fouquet’s, facade work at the Fleming Smith Warehouse, construction of the townhouse at 142 Watts, the construction of 456 Washington before that, and whatever else I’m forgetting.
Another positive development for that block is the reported addition of Big Gay Ice Cream in the space previously occupied by Fika Coffee on the corner of Washington & Desbrosses. That’s been vacant since late 2019. The new location isn’t shown yet on Big Gay Ice Cream’s website, but it was reported by the all-knowing Tribeca Citizen, Google Maps has it, and you can see equipment being stored inside:
Equipment for Big Gay Ice Cream being stored inside the old Fika space.
The removal of scaffolding marks significant progress on the redevelopment of 450 Washington Street into luxury condops from its previous life as a 421-a rent stabilized rental building, Truffles Tribeca. With that said, I go down a real estate rabbit hole…
450 Washington Street as viewed from Hudson River Park
450 Washington is being redeveloped by Related Group, who also built 456 Washington to the immediate north and 70 Vestry to the immediate south. They recently replaced the windows, refinished the facade, and are presumably wrapping up the interiors. It has the amenities you’d expect of a luxury building with Hudson River views in Tribeca: roof terrace, fitness center, golf simulator, children’s playroom, and a private dining room. Marketing materials, availabilities, floorplans, and more information are available on the 450 Washington website. There are 176 units with prices ranging from $1 million for a studio to $8.5 million for a penthouse or roughly $2,000-$3,500/sf. It’s uncertain exactly how many units are in contract because sales only recently launched. StreetEasy shows 24 currently in contract.
If you read our previous article about 67 Vestry, you’ll notice that asking prices at 450 Washington are substantially cheaper than those at 67 Vestry even though it has comparable location and views. Compared to the $2,000-$3,500/sf being asked at 450 Washington, 67 Vestry is 100% in contract asking $2,750-$7,250/sf, an average upwards of $4,200/sf and a significant premium. The primary reason for this differential is likely 450 Washington’s complicated “condop” structure.
A condop is essentially a coop within a condo. A review of the offering plans provides more information. 450 Washington is being divided up into four condominium units: 2 commercial (retail) condos, 1 parking condo, and 1 “other” condo. That other condo will contain a residential coop. That residential coop will govern the 176 apartments being offered. Purchasers of apartments will be buying shares of that coop, which is inside of a condo, hence “condop.”
The 450 Washington Street Condominium contains only 4 units.The 450 Washington Street Owners Corporation (coop) contains 176 residential units.
New York City real estate developers most commonly use this condop structure in order to separate non-residential uses with independent ownership like retail and parking from the residential apartments for properties where the developer does not own the land outright. That situation applies here.
According to public ACRIS filings, in April 2002, Ponte Equities, a prominent landlord in Tribeca and Hudson Square, leased the land at 450 Washington to Truffles LLC, an entity owned by the Jack Parker Corporation, to construct the original rental building. In March 2006, that ground lease was converted to an “estate for years” agreement for $29 million. Pursuant to that agreement, the Jack Parker Corporation would own the land and building until April 30, 2105 (yes, the year 2105). After April 2105, ownership of the land and building reverts back to Ponte Equities. In February 2019, the Jack Parker Corporation sold that estate for years interest to Related for $260 million and Related began the current redevelopment. That reversion to Ponte Equities mechanism remains in place.
Because ownership of the land and building will ultimately revert back to Ponte Equities, 450 Washington shareholders will have to deal with at least two key downsides compared to owners of standard condominiums.
Ownership of everything—land, residential apartments, retail condos, and parking—will revert back to Ponte Equities upon expiration of the estate for years agreement on April 30, 2105
Shareholders do not own fee title to their units, which can make obtaining a mortgage more challenging
These elements add cost, complexity, and risk, substantially reducing the asking price of these units relative to neighborhood comps before taking into account typical apartment specifics—finishes, views, quality, etc.
On the bright side, because this is an estate for years agreement whereby the sponsor owns the land for a period of time rather than a ground lease whereby the sponsor rents the land for a period of time, there does not appear to be any ground rent payable by shareholders on top of their monthly maintenance charges, so monthlies shouldn’t run above market.
In addition, the offering plan states that Related is retaining the right to rent more than 49 percent of the apartments being offered and that there is a mechanism to sell apartments at even deeper discounts to existing tenants of the Truffles rental building. These factors could push values down further by providing a less desirable living experience for new owners and by creating challenges with building governance given the various potential different types of owners (previous tenants turned owners, sponsor rental units, bonafide new owners, etc.).
Our grade school real estate enthusiasts should mark their calendars to keep an eye on this project at the turn of the 22nd century if Tribeca isn’t underwater by then.
If you live in Tribeca and have an eye for real estate, you’ve probably been waiting a long time to see how 67 Vestry will look once the scaffolding comes down. Well wait no longer! While walking up Washington Street earlier today, I peaked west on Vestry and noticed that the scaffolding is finally coming down. Perfect news for my inaugural blog post.
67 Vestry Street is a boutique 13-story pre-war luxury residential condominium located in Tribeca on the corner of Vestry Street and West Street being developed by Iliad Realty Group. The property contains 13 homes and numerous luxury amenities such as 24/7 attended lobby, an indoor pool, fitness room, a game room, and private storage units. BP Architects is the designer and Gachot Studios, who did the interiors at nearby 71 Laight Street, is doing the interiors here. Silverstein Capital Partners provided $110 million in financing according to the condominium offering plan filed with the New York State Real Estate Finance Bureau. The property has a long history as live/work artist loft space and was slated to be redeveloped by Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty until he sold it to Iliad Realty Group back in 2017.
The northern facade of 67 Vestry as viewed from Vestry Street.A close-up of the northern facade of 67 Vestry as viewed from Vestry Street.
You can see from the above photos that most of the northern facade has been revealed—and it looks great! With the exception of the penthouse addition, about which I’m withholding my full architectural critique until it’s entirely revealed, the building retains its original historic character even though it technically falls outside of the boundaries of the Tribeca North Historic District. This is important as a number of prominent New York City artists once called 67 Vestry their home or studio. That list includes Andy Warhol, John Chamberlain, Jack Beal, and Robert Wilson. ArtCritical has a full rundown with more intriguing history. (And in case you missed it, Cristina Grajales’ gallery at nearby 50 Vestry Street recently had a touching solo exhibition from Robert Wilson.) Additionally, the building was originally designed by F.P. Dinkelberg, who was known for having worked on the Flatiron Building.
The western facade of 67 Vestry as viewed from Hudson River ParkAbout half of the scaffolding has been removed from 67 Vestry.
It’s exciting to see the scaffolding coming down from the perspective of Hudson River Park as well. In the above photos, if you disregard the ridiculous solar flare that appeared due to my poor photography skills, you can see that a chunk of the top two floors on the western facade have been revealed and the penthouse is also visible. I’d ballpark that roughly half of the scaffolding is down. Notably, we can see the curious intersection between the penthouse at 67 Vestry and the top few floors at neighboring 92 Laight Street, but that doesn’t seem to have given buyers much pause. 67 Vestry PHA is in contract for $45 million and 67 Vestry PHB is in contract for $22.5 million.
450 Washington Street (née Truffles Tribeca) and 67 Vestry are, by my eye, the last two waterfront Tribeca properties that should undergo substantial work, so it’s good news to see both wrapping up.
On the real estate side of things, 67 Vestry appears to be 100% sold out already. StreetEasy lists all 13 units as being in contract, so our readers who were hoping to spend between $8-45 million for a luxury waterfront Tribeca home unfortunately seem to be out of luck. Prices per square foot range from $2,700 for a three bedroom unit to $7,250 for the bigger penthouse.
Unit
Asking Price
SF
$/SF
PHA
$45,000,000
6,207
$7,250
PHB
$22,500,000
3,513
$6,405
Floor 9
$27,000,000
5,794
$4,660
Floor 8
$23,850,000
5,794
$4,116
7-South
$8,500,000
2,713
$3,133
Floor 6
$24,500,000
5,794
$4,229
5-North
$10,150,000
3,256
$3,117
5-South
$7,865,000
2,494
$3,154
4-North
$9,850,000
3,256
$3,025
4-South
$8,150,000
2,494
$3,268
3-South
$7,950,000
2,578
$3,084
TH-North
$10,150,000
3,678
$2,760
TH-South
$9,650,000
3,204
$3,012
Total
$215,115,000
50,775
$4,237
67 Vestry list of units with square footage and price information.
An examination of the above table brings up two points. First, this is an extremely expensive building along the lines of the neighborhood celebrity buildings like 70 Vestry directly across the street and 443 Greenwich down the block. Second, what happened to 3-North and 7-North? This is an interesting question. Construction permits state that there are 15 units in total; however, it has been widely reported that there are only 13 units in the project. This discrepancy appears to be related to those two units, 3-North and 7-North, which have individual permits filed for interior work:
Units 3-North and 7-North have distinct permits for their interiors.
A review of the underlying files, in particular the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) report, shows that those two units were previously rent stabilized with tenants in place. The developer and those tenants agreed to a tenant relocation plan to ensure the building would be vacant during construction. While I can’t find the relocation plan, it’s likely that those apartments are being renovated separately (in accordance with applicable rent stabilization laws, etc.) and that the two previous tenants will return to those apartments once construction is complete. The condominium offering plan supports the conclusion that those units will remain rent stabilized. Interesting stuff!
