Nobu Hotel, Like its Patrons, Will be Tall & Skinny
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]
Curbed Roundtable: May State O' the Market Report
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]
Silverstein's Got 99 Problems, But a Church Ain't One
Name changes are usually relegated to the CurbedWire, but when you're talking about the soon-to-be-tallest residential building in New York City (eat it, Trump!), things have to be done on a grander scale. Thus, it is our duty to point you to the website of Silverstein Properties, where 99 Church Street—the 80-story limestone behemoth drawn up by Robert A.M. Stern for WTC developer Larry Silverstein—is now going by 30 Park Place, thankyouverymuch. The 99 Church address has always been associated with the former building on the site, the 11-story demolished Moody's headquarters, and its been known that the residential lobby for the hotel/condo would be at 30 Park Place, so perhaps the switch was inevitable. Still, we're sorry to have to retire our "Church of Stern" nickname for the building after all this time. The Four Seasons lobby will be on Barclay Street, so there's no salvation there, either. Why is this making us sad for some reason? We'll stop now.
· Silverstein Properties [silversteinproperties.com]
· Ask Curbed: Church of Stern Ruining My Sleep [Curbed]
· Stern's 99 Church Revealed: Four Seasons! Limestone! [Curbed]
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