Five years ago, developer Sharif El-Gamal found himself the target of public and political opprobrium when his company, Soho Properties, proposed building Park51, a 15-story Islamic Center and mosque two blocks from the Ground Zero site where the World Trade Center towers were destroyed by the deadliest terrorist attack in the country’s history.
On that same lot—45 Park Place in lower Manhattan, for which El-Gamal paid only $4.85 million in 2009—Soho now proposes to build a 70-story, 667-foot-tall glass condominium tower. According to Bloomberg Business, the skyscraper would offer at least 15 full-floor units of 3,200 to 3,700 sf each, with an average price tag of $3,000 per square foot. The total number of units being proposed was not disclosed.
If the building and pricing are approved, this project is expected to break ground by the end of this year, start selling units early next year, and be completed in 2017. Michael Abboud of the architectural firm SOMA designed the building. The Italian designer Piero Lissoni will design the interiors. Ismael Leyva Architects reportedly is converting SOMA’s exterior design concepts into floor layouts and detailed construction plans.
The proposal calls for 12-foot-tall windows and unobstructed views to the north that begin at close to 300 feet. There will be a 50-foot swimming pool in the basement, concierge service, and a high-ceilinged private lounge.
Bloomberg also reports that Soho still plans to build a three-story Islamic museum and prayer space that would be connected to the tower via a public plaza.
Soho Properties first disclosed preliminary plans for its tower in August 2014, but was still feeling the sting of negative press surrounding the Islamic Center controversy. Those preliminary plans, though, called for a 39-story, 48-unit condo building, considerably shorter than the tower Soho wants to build now.
Soho is attempting to strike while the luxury condo boom is still hot. Home prices in downtown have risen by 28% since 2012. StreetEasy.com, which tracks sales and pricing activity in New York, estimates that homes in the downtown area are on the market for an average of 56 days before they’re sold, or about half the time it took in 2012.
About 5,500 units are being planned or are under construction in the downtown area south of Chambers Street, which suggests that Soho’s proposed tower would run the risk of jumping into a very crowded field.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Brooklyn's tallest building reaches 514 feet
With the Brooklyner now topped off, the 514-foot-high apartment tower is Brooklyn's tallest building. Designed by New York-based Gerner Kronick + Valcarcel Architects and developed by The Clarett Group, the soaring 51-story tower is constructed of cast-in-place concrete and clad with window walls and decorative metal panels.
| Aug 11, 2010
RMJM unveils design details for $1B green development in Turkey
RMJM has unveiled the design for the $1 billion Varyap Meridian development it is master planning in Istanbul, Turkey's Atasehir district, a new residential and business district. Set on a highly visible site that features panoramic views stretching from the Bosporus Strait in the west to the Sea of Marmara to the south, the 372,000-square-meter development includes a 60-story tower, 1,500 resi...
| Aug 11, 2010
'Feebate' program to reward green buildings in Portland, Ore.
Officials in Portland, Ore., have proposed a green building incentive program that would be the first of its kind in the U.S. Under the program, new commercial buildings, 20,000 sf or larger, that meet Oregon's state building code would be assessed a fee by the city of up to $3.46/sf. The fee would be waived for buildings that achieve LEED Silver certification from the U.
| Aug 11, 2010
Colonnade fixes setback problem in Brooklyn condo project
The New York firm Scarano Architects was brought in by the developers of Olive Park condominiums in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn to bring the facility up to code after frame out was completed. The architects designed colonnades along the building's perimeter to create the 15-foot setback required by the New York City Planning Commission.
| Aug 11, 2010
U.S. firm designing massive Taiwan project
MulvannyG2 Architecture is designing one of Taipei, Taiwan's largest urban redevelopment projects. The Bellevue, Wash., firm is working with developer The Global Team Group to create Aquapearl, a mixed-use complex that's part of the Taipei government's "Good Looking Taipei 2010" initiative to spur redevelopment of the city's Songjian District.
| Aug 11, 2010
Recycled Pavers Elevate Rooftop Patio
The new three-story building at 3015 16th Street in Minot, N.D., houses the headquarters of building owner Investors Real Estate Trust (IRET), as well as ground-floor retail space and 71 rental apartments. The 215,000-sf mixed-use building occupies most of the small site, while parking takes up the remainder.
| Aug 11, 2010
Housing America's Heroes 7 Trends in the Design of Homes for the Military
Take a stroll through a new residential housing development at many U.S. military posts, and you'd be hard-pressed to tell it apart from a newer middle-class neighborhood in Anywhere, USA. And that's just the way the service branches want it. The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines have all embarked on major housing upgrade programs in the past decade, creating a military housing construction boom.
| Aug 11, 2010
Loft Condo Conversion That's Outside the Box
Few people would have taken a look at a century-old cigar box factory with crumbling masonry and rotted wood beams and envisioned stylish loft condos, but Miles Development Partners did just that. And they made that vision a reality at Box Factory Lofts in historic Ybor City, Fla. Once the largest cigar box plant in the world, the Tampa Box Company produced boxes of many shapes and sizes, spec...
| Aug 11, 2010
World's tallest all-wood residential structure opens in London
At nine stories, the Stadthaus apartment complex in East London is the world’s tallest residential structure constructed entirely in timber and one of the tallest all-wood buildings on the planet. The tower’s structural system consists of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels pieced together to form load-bearing walls and floors. Even the elevator and stair shafts are constructed of prefabricated CLT.
| Aug 11, 2010
CityCenter Takes Experience Design To New Heights
It's early June, in Las Vegas, which means it's very hot, and I am coming to the end of a hardhat tour of the $9.2 billion CityCenter development, a tour that began in the air-conditioned comfort of the project's immense sales center just off the famed Las Vegas Strip and ended on a rooftop overlooking the largest privately funded development in the U.