JDS and SHoP Architects Unveil Plan for 900-Foot Lower East Side Tower
There’s a new tallest tower taking over the Lower East Side, and unsurprisingly it comes to us via the supertall super-team of JDS Development and SHoP Architects, the same duo responsible for the 1,438-foot-tall 111 West 57th Street and 9 DeKalb Avenue, Brooklyn’s first 1,000+ foot tower. Their latest record-setter is a 900-foot, 77-story rental building planned for 247 Cherry Street, reports The Lo-Down. It will rise directly next to Extell’s One Manhattan Square, which made waves for its 850-foot height in the low-scale Two Bridges area.
The newest tallest tower between Midtown and Downtown will have a 10,000-square-foot retail base with 600 rental apartments above, about 150 of which will be made permanently affordable. Though the design isn’t finalized, SHoP says it will likely be terracotta brick and glass and feature outdoor terraces in the middle. There will also be a top-floor amenity space for all residents, and SCAPE Landscape Architecture has been tapped to create a publicly accessible plaza surrounding the structure.
Photo from earlier this month of the Manhattan Square construction site with the JDS site behind it, via 6sqft
The site of 247 Cherry Street is owned by the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council and Settlement Housing Fund. JDS and SHoP will purchase 500,000 square feet of development rights from the organizations for $51 million. As The Lo-Down explains, “The project is being accomplished by demolishing a small community center on Cherry Street, nestling the 900-foot tower alongside an existing senior housing building and cantilevering a portion of the new construction over the old pharmacy property. The footprint for the tower will be about 9,000 square feet.” As part of the deal, the developers will fund renovations to the senior building and create a new 4,600-square-foot community center for senior residents in the tower that will also be accessible from the senior building.
The units include a mix of studios, one-bedrooms, and two-bedrooms, and unlike One Manhattan Square, the affordable apartments will be dispersed throughout the building. JDS CEO Michael Stern said, “We think it is the better model of affordable housing.” He also said, “We see it as a model of responsible development moving forward. Take an under-utilized affordable housing asset and get some value out of it, create new affordable housing and create capital to preserve affordable housing and (generate) positive ripple effects wherever you’re building.”
The entire plan was presented to the public last night, and just as was the case with Extell’s tower, many nearby residents and local elected officials are speaking out against the proposal, claiming that it’s out-of-scale and accelerating gentrification of the mostly low-income neighborhood. Nevertheless, JDS is gearing up to win approval from the Department of City Planning and to access tax incentives for the inclusion of affordable housing. Construction wouldn’t begin for at least two years.
[Via The Lo-Down]
RELATED:
- Extell’s 831-Foot-Tall One Manhattan Square Begins Its Climb Above Chinatown
- Revealed: See the Insanely Luxurious Amenities Inside Extell’s Controversial 80-Story LES Tower
- Beyer Blinder Belle Publishes Renderings of Essex Crossing’s Site 5
Renderings courtesy of SHoP Architects
