Reply With QuoteAnyone have any new pics? I don't get by there a lot and am excited to see this baby all clad up.
Thanks, Schwartz. Do you know how many sf of rights that site has? If it's over 1m, that could lead to a 1,000+ foot tower.
Anyone have any new pics? I don't get by there a lot and am excited to see this baby all clad up.
From over on skyscraperpage. This building is something of a monster. I was uncomfortable standing near it. There's just something about how it dominates the area.
Originally Posted by mrnyc
this one is more impressive than i thought!
from today
Reminds me of a much better designed version of that one massive project tower in Manhattanville 100 blocks uptown. And FINALLY, the AT&T tower, IMO the single worst highrise in Manhattan, is blocked from the west, its most offensive side.
I don't know if I'd want to be in the apartments facing those big microwave horns.
21 April 2012
massive!
Those horns are RIP (retired in place).
9/12/12
A mountain rising above the forest
Inside a luxury Z-shaped Manhattan rental with an amphitheater, bocce ball courts and outdoor pool
You’ll need to make at least $120,000 to be able to get in the door to rent one of these swanky apartments. The studios start at $2,985.
By Jason Sheftell
Evan Joseph
There are moments, standing in either of the 30,000-square-feet outdoor courtyards at the Mercedes House rental building between 53rd and 54th St. and 11th Ave., looking up at the hulking steel and glass structure, that you are not in this city, this country or possibly this world.
Standing outside in the northern courtyard, trees and manicured gardens surrounded you. There are curvy orange outdoor chaises, bocce ball courts and an amphitheater on one side. On the other is an elevated outdoor pool perched on a metal and wood-wrapped pedestal adjacent to a giant Japanese weathervane sculpture by Susumu Shingu.
The ziggurat-shaped building rises high around you. Zen-style sunscreens block the sun to give the structure the feel of a giant civic building in a futuristic science-fiction world where only bright skies exist. Several renters have terraces that go up and down the Z-shaped building. It’s like nothing this city has ever seen before.
That’s great architecture. It was developed by Two Trees Management Company, the Walentas family-owned group who created the neighborhood of DUMBO, and designed by Enrique Norten’s Ten Arquitectos. The building is a glimpse into more of what New York needs. It’s mammoth, its use of indoor and outdoor space allowing triple the air and light of other New York dwellings.
Evan Joseph
All of this gives this zigzag building as much if not more of an architectural oomph than New York Gehry, the tallest rental building in the Western Hemisphere in lower Manhattan. This building, though, did not lose power. From above and below, inside and out, you feel its mass and see its ingenuity.
Inside, that design and programming drives usage and rental figures. Three stories above the ground, on the just- opened 100,000-square-foot amenity floor, young people work out in the state-of-the- art gym. They drink at the Elixir juice bar. They shoot pool at the billiards table. Some work on laptops as they sit on curved wooden seats over a gray slate floor.
For a moment again, you’re not sure where you are. It could be a new building at a modern university. It could be the set for a Ridley Scott film. It could be a learning center for the mentally advanced. After all, with studios starting at $2,985, the minimum income requirement starts at about $120,000.
The 220 homes in the first phase of the building rented in 90 days. Now, as soon as apartments come open, renters wait to scoop them up. Already, only 140 of the 470 homes in phase two are left to rent. Two Trees sold the top 10 floors of the building, which consist of 162 homes, to institutional investment company Invesco, recapturing their initial investment and then some. In general, this building is a roaring success, fetching up to almost $76 per square as opposed to the $58 that Two Trees projected.
“As a company, we like to do a good job,” says Jed Walentas, the company’s owner who handles all construction details. “Also, we feel a responsibility to New York to do something better, more design-oriented. We think great can increase people’s desire to want to be there. Other buildings make renters gravitate to mediocrity. We’re proud to be a part of a group of developers who are proving that differentiating yourself and your properties is good business.”
Evan Joseph
On a recent Tuesday, the leasing office had people coming and going. Members of what might be the most attractive on-site leasing team in the city showed would-be renters around. They were greeted by a piece of technology that further set the building apart. Prospects came to a slim kiosk where they could use a touch-screen to see a 3-D image of the building, locate available apartments, and see floor plans and views. Not only was it cool, it provided Two Trees with renter data that optimize the leasing process and recommends apartments based on search criteria.
“I met this kid who went to MIT working out of Miami,” says Two Trees general manager Asher Abehsera, who with Walentas oversaw every detail in the building. “The software is specifically for the building. After someone signs in, we can tell what kind of renter is looking at what units. When they rent, it provides even more information.”
Evan Joseph
Apartments start at $2,985 for studios, $3,700 for one-bedrooms, and $5,000 and up for two-bedrooms. In the Two Trees collections, there is one terrace home still available, a two-bedroom on the 15th floor for $7,000. Invesco’s units, with higher-end appliances, pricier finishes and larger layouts, will cost more.
Purchased from Verizon for $130 million in 2006, the 100,000-square-foot parcel was originally a parking lot for company trucks. Lack of bank loans to developers during the height of the recession caused Two Trees to use some of their own existing capital to begin construction. An 18-month city land-use process allowed Two Trees to change the zoning of the site from manufacturing to mixed-use with commercial, retail and residential spaces.
“This building was a game-changer for us as a company and the neighborhood,” says Abehsera, walking around the just-opened amenities center known as Mercedes Club. “It’s what we try to do; we try to build neighborhoods. If you live on the West Side, this is the only place you should want to live. We’re pulling people from Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, and downtown. Once they see the club, if they can afford it, they’re renting.”
Evan Joseph
“We had to put a card machine in, so people could pay immediately,” says Rachel Braver, an on-site leasing agent with the project from the start.
For Walentas, it’s a broader vision of how real estate and neighborhoods come together. His father, David, was an early SoHo loft converter. Then, the family made a heavy investment into DUMBO, coined the neighborhood and forged a retail, commercial and residential vision. His mother, Jane, placed the famous carousel at the base of the East River.
No one in his family fears risk. David, a lover of design, worked with DUMBO-based Lesser Architecture on the lobby and gym. He gave it a slight institutional feel with a pop-culture edge.
Evan Joseph
“It’s rare in Manhattan when you have a site that can give you this much flexibility,” says Jed Walentas, who will spearhead the Domino Sugar Factory development in Williamsburg. “This is the case of the city’s land-use process really doing its job. We worked closely with a strong-minded and strong-willed community to give them what they wanted, something we both hope will make this part of New York better. We’re all in it together now, and as a developer you want people to walk around and look up at the building and say, ‘That made this neighborhood better.’ That’s our goal at least.”
Community leaders agree that transparency from the developer helped this building become a reality.
“Two Trees was very open with us,” says Robert F. Benfatto, district manager Community Board 4, who noted that 20 percent of the project is affordable. “They took us on a tour of their Brooklyn properties. This building will be the biggest in the neighborhood for a while. It goes well with the smaller buildings nearby. We worked at that.”
Outside on the streets, the Mercedes House creates a new center for this section of 11th Ave. Across the street from DeWitt Clinton Park, above the $350 million Mercedes Manhattan dealership, the light and activity on the street is greater than it ever has been.
Other car dealerships, new pet stores, bike shops, grocery stores, delis, gas stations, TV studios and a Daisy May BBQ, have new life. This is no longer just a stretch for cabs to get passengers to downtown destinations. At the same time, the madness of midtown is still three long avenues away. Central Park is three avenues east and three blocks north.
“When you come home to this building, you’re in your own world,” says Abehsera. “It’s not in the middle of it all, so it’s like coming to own an easier New York. We think it’s an oasis.”
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Great building!
I like everything but the northeast corner. I kind of wish it had been set back from the platform instead of rising vertically from the street. It makes for a too-imposing feel on the street.
Something architecturally engaging for a change. I love it. I would live there in a flash if I had the means.
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