Prolific and sometimes reviled hotel developer Sam Chang, of the McSam Hotel Group, has been divesting himself of Lower Manhattan properties lately, unloading a Stone Street parking lot for a whopping $60 million and granting the Pussycat Lounge a stay of execution by selling the Greenwich Street building to the strip club's owner. It was thought that the credit crunch was hitting Chang hard, but the man is unpredictable, so he's gone back to the buyer's table. The Post's Lois Weiss reports today that Chang bought a pair of FiDi properties for a combined $56 million, though the deal was signed back in November. Bound for redevelopment are 6-12 Water Street, a five-story building now home to a classy looking McDonald's, and the seven-story loft building behind it, 32-38 Pearl Street. Does the Financial District really need another McSam hotel, what would be the 47 millionth planned in the next few years? Maybe, maybe not. We'll see if Chang flips this one, too.
· An Apple May Grow Downtown [NYP]
· Curbed's Sam Chang coverage [Curbed]

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The redesign of the old Verizon switching station at 375 Pearl Street—the nearly windowless white building near the base of the Brooklyn Bridge that has been reviled since its completion in the mid-'70s—gets the full reveal in Steve Cuozzo's column in the Post today. Taconic Investment Partners bought the building from Verizon for peanuts, with an eye on converting the 32-story blight into an iconic downtown office building. The new World Trade Center towers will be some tough competition, but this one is actually built already, and good lord those views. At left is the "before" image, and after the jump is what's to come. Richard Cook of Cook + Fox designed the glass makeover, which will reveal X-shaped concrete supports under the building's skin. It's not the first glass curtain wall transformation we've seen lately, but given what stands here now, it's definitely more welcome. Other details of the $350 million renovation include a double-height lobby, outdoor plaza and the conversion of air-conditioning shafts to office space. Sounds roomy!

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The long promised, long delayed (does 30 years qualify as "long"?) Pier A redo appears to actually be moving forward as promised, with vows being uttered by the Chair of the Battery Park City Authority that "We will not fail." The authority took over the lease last year and is signing a new 49-year, rent-free lease. The rotting hulk is supposed to be redone as "a hub for tourists" who would get on Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ferries there and, of course, be able to buy Big Apple coffee mugs in new shops and have a cold one at a TGIF's or something like it. Downtown Express reports there's an actual schedule for the project. Divers have been under the pier checking it ou and there's supposed to be a "conceptual framework" for the project by August and a final design by next May. They're saying the pier could be ready by 2011. Unless, of course, a change in city administration sinks the plan.
· Authority promises to end decades of Pier A delay [Downtown Express]
· Has Pier A's Ship Finally Come In? [Curbed]

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Now that the confusion regarding the location of the Nobu Hotel has been cleared up, Braden Keil has the reveal on what the Financial District's Robert De Niro-backed luxury hotel/condo will look like—and surprise, it's another huge all-glass tower for our little island. According to developer Kent Swig there will be 77 "super-luxury" condos on floors 41 through 62, and 128 hotel rooms and 13,000-square-feet of retail space below. The Nobu restaurant will be on the third floor of the six-story transparent base. Moed de Armas & Shannon designed the curvy exterior of 45 Broad Street, and the ubiquitous Rockwell Group will be handling the guts. So! The Nobu Hotel, the W Hotel & Residences, the Four Seasons—can the FiDi really handle all of these hotel hybrids?
· Just Say Nobu [NYP]
· CurbedWire Special: De Niro's FiDi Hotel NOT at 50 Broad [Curbed]
· De Niro Jumps on FiDi Bandwagon: Nobu Hotel Coming! [Curbed]

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By now it's well known that Spanish starchitect Santiago Calatrava's soaring design for a new World Trade Center PATH terminal is being value-engineered to shit, but according to Port Authority officials, the big bird will still take flight. David Dunlap reports in the Times today that the plan is still to have the train station "completed and functioning" in 2011, and the above-ground aesthetic (the wings!) will not be clipped. But in order to maintain that $2.5 billion budget—and really, it must be hard to build a train stop for Jerseyites for only a couple billion dollars—some design compromises are now coming to light. These changes include a street-level perimeter that will shrink by 10-15 percent, and the use of standard concrete in the ceiling of the mezzanine rather than the stylish and smooth architectural concrete. Of course, more changes are on the way, and a contractor has yet to be found that can deliver this project according to the budget, but said Calatrava: "I believe that we have made the design better in many, many ways, through this exercise." And maybe in many, many years, he'll actually believe that.
· At Rail Hub, Bird Will Still Soar, but With a Bit Less Polish [NYT]
· Calatrava's PATH Station: Now This is Getting Awkward [Curbed]
· Port Authority May Clip Calatrava Again [Curbed]

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Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

Just to make certain that poor old 287 Broadway doesn't come tumbling down, big steel beams have been pushed up against the tilt of her leaning brick wall. Where before there was a cross-hatch of simplicity holding her up, now there's a jumbled mix of metal and wood, their textures and colors giving us a contrast of old and new, pliable and strong. It's all an effort to make certain that the cast iron beauty doesn't collapse into the lot next door, which has been cleared by a rambunctious gang from Chicago in preparation for yet another glass-covered condo.

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Is the FiDi over before it ever really began? That's the subject tackled in a fascinating story in the new issue of The Real Deal, which looks at the glut (or non-glut, based on whomever is offering the soundbite) of new housing available in the Financial District. There are a slew of high-profile developments in the pipeline, including luxury rentals at 95 Wall Street and 8 Spruce Street, and luxury condos at 30 Park Place and 45 Broad Street. These of course join the numerous conversions and new construction, including District, William Beaver House, the W Hotel & Residences, 75 Wall Street, etc. It's a lot to take on, even for a neighborhood whose population will have doubled over a span of five years. So is the "next great neighborhood" being run into the ground, with Wall Street layoffs a further harbinger of doom? Depends on who you ask. Developers like Kent Swig and Larry Silverstein are of course bullish on the area, but Stribling vice president Lori Huler Glick says small apartments (they are office buildings, after all) commanding top dollar are disappointing potential buyers ("It kind of feels like when you're on vacation, but you're stuck in a timeshare"). Good arguments all around, but the one confusing statement is from CORE's John Gomes, who says the popularity of the William Beaver House amongst foreign buyers shows that "foreign buyers understand the value of that neighborhood more than New Yorkers." That bit of dementia aside, what are the feelings out there right now about the FiDi?
· Financial District boom slows [TRD]

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