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[NYguy]

On hold. Again.


http://observer.com/2013/03/hudson-s...-in-the-works/

Hudson Square On Hold: City Council Postpones Vote,
Could a Landmarking Compromise Be In the Works?





By Kim Velsey 3/07/13

Hudson Square has, by and large, been a largely uncontentious rezoning (despite being the largest private rezoning in the city’s history). In comparison to the bitter battles already being fought over Midtown East, the process looks positively kumbaya. But given the City Council’s decision to delay their vote on the rezoning this morning, we suspect that approval will be contingent on at least a few concessions.

Could one of those compromises involve landmarking at least part of South Village? The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation has argued that the adjacent neighborhood’s low-rise historic architecture will be the biggest casualty of a more vibrant Hudson Square (or as some of the neighborhood’s hip tech and media companies have taken to calling it—Soho West).

While many have rejected the notion that Speaker Christine Quinn would make landmarking a condition of the rezoning—that she even could make it a condition of the rezoning (Ms. Quinn’s office declined to comment)—the city’s own environmental impact study found that the proposed historic district would suffer a “significant adverse impact from the rezoning.”

Basically, once Hudson Square morphs from what is largely an office district into a mixed-use neighborhood with all the bells and whistles (dining/drinking/shopping/living), developers will flock not only to Hudson Square, but also to nearby neighborhoods.

Additionally, many of the other requests to come out of the public review process have already been incorporated into the plan. Borough president Scott Stringer extracted a promise for a school to serve the new residents that the rezoning is expected to bring (between 2,000 and 3,200 new housing units are expected). Mr. Stringer also knocked the height of the buildings down from 320 feet to 290 feet and required special permits for any hotels with more than 100 rooms (limiting the danger of another Trump Soho sprouting up).

We should know be able to see what shape the negotiations take next Wednesday, the day the council’s vote has been rescheduled for.

[NYguy]

http://observer.com/2013/03/holy-tri...uare-rezoning/

Holy Trinity! City Council Committees Give Hudson Square Rezoning Stamp of Approval


By Kim Velsey
March 13, 2013

This morning, the City Council’s zoning and franchise committee approved the Hudson Square Rezoning and the full land use committee followed suit soon after, paving the way for full City Council approval (probably later this month). The decision, however, was not granted without modifications—more affordable housing, open space funding and an agreement from the Landmarks Preservation Commission to vote on the northern section of the South Village Historic District by the end of the year.

mong the other modifications to the plan, the zoning text will be modified to allow developers to maximize affordable housing to the fullest extent allowed (the rezoning is expected to bring between 2,000 and 3,000 new apartments, a modest percentage of which will be affordable). Open space funding—one of the community’s requests—has also been incorporated into the modified plan, with the Parks Department agreeing to prioritize $5.6 million in mitigation funds to fix the roof at Pier 40 and to expand the services at the Dapalito Center, allowing for use of both the indoor and outdoor pools at the same time.

Trinity has also agreed to build new recreation spaces for community use at the 444-seat elementary school (itself a concession to accommodate the neighborhood’s new residents). Before the rezoning proposal came to the City Council, the City Planning Commission and borough president Scott Stringer negotiated a few other changes, knocking the height of the buildings down from 320 feet to 290 feet and requiring special permits for any hotels with more than 100 rooms.

To mollify other property owners, like Edison, in the neighborhood, Trinity also agreed to eliminate Subdistrict B from the plan, which would have restricted building heights near the Holland Tunnel.

[NYguy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/ny...pagewanted=all

Trinity Church Split on How to Manage $2 Billion Legacy of a Queen




Most of Trinity Church’s Manhattan real estate holdings are in the Hudson Square area, including a vacant lot at Duarte Square.


By SHARON OTTERMAN
April 24, 2013

There has never been any doubt that Trinity Church is wealthy. But the extent of its wealth has long been a mystery; guessed at by many, known by few. Now, however, after a lawsuit filed by a disenchanted parishioner, the church has offered an estimate of the value of its assets: more than $2 billion.

The Episcopal parish, known as Trinity Wall Street, traces its holdings to a gift of 215 acres of prime Manhattan farmland donated in 1705 by Queen Anne of England. Since then, the church has parlayed that gift into a rich portfolio of office buildings, stock investments and, soon, mixed-use residential development....Over the years, the church has sold or given away much of the original 215 acres from Queen Anne, but it has 14 acres, including 5.5 million square feet of commercial real estate.

It reported $158 million in real estate revenue for 2011, the majority of which went toward maintaining and supporting its real estate operations, the financial statement indicates. Of the $38 million left for the church’s operating budget, some $4 million was spent on communications, $3 million on philanthropic grant spending and $2.5 million on the church’s music program, church officials said. Nearly $6 million went to maintain Trinity’s historic properties, including the main church building, which was built in 1846; St. Paul’s Chapel; and several cemeteries, where luminaries including Alexander Hamilton and Edward I. Koch are buried. The remainder went into the church’s equity investment portfolio.

The vast majority of the parish’s property is in Hudson Square, a commercial neighborhood next to the Manhattan entrance to the Holland Tunnel. These days, the area’s hulking prewar industrial buildings, designed for use by printing companies, are increasingly occupied by creative and technology companies, with restaurants and galleries on the street level.

“The Trinity Church properties are now among the most valuable in all of New York City, because they are sitting on the edge of the hottest neighborhoods in the city — SoHo, TriBeCa and Greenwich Village,” said Mitchell L. Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University. “Trinity has been either very wise or very prudent, but they have let the market mature around them, and now they are ready to take advantage of it.”

The church, which calls itself “one of the largest landowners in Manhattan,” has also been building an equity investment portfolio that was worth about $160 million in 2011. And the value of Trinity’s real estate holdings is expected to grow because rezoning of much of the church’s land will allow up to 3,200 new residential units, with the first large project planned for Duarte Square on Canal Street.

“The legacy of Queen Anne is that Trinity Church is going to prosper in the 21st century,” Mr. Moss said. “Who says that the empire doesn’t live on?”

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...artment-towers

Trinity to erect apartment towers
The Episcopal church's lucrative property arm makes a big new bet on residential real estate





BY DANIEL GEIGER
NOVEMBER 3, 2014

For just over three centuries, Trinity Church has cautiously managed the 215 acres of downtown Manhattan it received from Britain's Queen Anne, turning it from productive farmland to industrial and office space.

In the next few weeks, the Episcopal church—whose property arm, Trinity Real Estate, oversees the 5.5 million square feet of office buildings it owns on the western fringe of SoHo in an area called Hudson Square—will try something new. It will venture into the high-stakes game of residential development.

.....Trinity's first step will come before the year-end, when it selects a partner to help rebuild its 25-story headquarters on Trinity Place. The building is across the street from Trinity's landmark church and linked to its famous cemetery—the final resting place of Alexander Hamilton, among others—via a pedestrian bridge. Work converting the office building to a sleek, 44-story Pelli Clarke Pelli-designed tower, topped by luxury residences, will begin next year.

Meanwhile, in January, Trinity will kick off the search for a partner to help build a 430-foot-tall, 300,000-square-foot residential building a mile north, on a plot framed by Sixth Avenue and Canal, Grand and Varick streets. The property will include a 444-seat public school at its base.

At least three more big residential towers, together totaling close to 1 million square feet, will follow in Hudson Square. Trinity laid the legal groundwork for their rise last year when the City Council approved a massive rezoning that will allow the church—Hudson Square's largest landlord, with more than a dozen office buildings—to build residences for the first time.

.....Mr. Pizer, 49, has an even-keeled demeanor that has made him a fitting chief of Trinity's real estate business. After the rezoning last year, several developers broke ground on residential projects. Mr. Pizer said Trinity would be cautious not to undertake too much at once.

"I'm a big believer that we should never bite off more than we can chew," he said.

[b][color=blue]Mr. Pizer noted the company would likely wait years before it undertakes 4 Hudson Square, a development site that encompasses the full block between Hudson and Varick streets from Spring to Vandam streets.
The location can accommodate about 1 million square feet of new development—likely two towers, one residential and the other office space.

"We'll wait for the next real estate cycle," Mr. Pizer said.