Demolition, remediation underway at NYC site

Demolition and brownfield remediation work reportedly is continuing in the lower Manhattan area of New York so a development consortium can build a 50-story apartment building.

According to Our Town, the property is owned by Carlisle New York Apartments LLC, which is affiliated with a Miami-based real estate development firm. However, the development is identified by Our Town as Link Apartments 8 Carlisle, which Charlotte, North Carolina-based Grubb Properties also is involved in, per its website.

The property on Washington Street in lower Manhattan is not far from the former World Trade Center site. Two businesses—the former Kasser Scrap Metal and Rector Cleaners—are identified in the report and by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) as having formerly been on the site.

Some demolition work already has occurred on the property, which has been vacant about 10 years. Our Town says five-story mixed use buildings stood on the site until the mid-1970s, when they were replaced by a six-story parking garage.

The garage was itself demolished in 2010, but the site was used subsequently by the regional Port Authority, including as a maintenance support yard for the World Trade Center project, which involved both cleanup and constructing the 94-story One World Trade Center (formerly known as Freedom Tower).

Our Town says a spokesperson from the development firm it contacted said the planned building will be approximately 50 stories with 400 units and 22,000 square feet of ground floor retail.

The developers, who paid $89 million for the site, according to Our Town, plan to start construction on the quarter-acre plot after the remediation is complete, which could be this November or December. The developer also says it will pursue Affordable New York Housing Program funding for the Link Apartments 8 Carlisle project.

Grubb Properties also names New York-based real estate development company Pink Stone Capital Group as the seller of the land and says that firm will serve as a partner. “Pink Stone purchased the site in 2011 and was instrumental in assembling the air rights and obtaining the permits to build a project of this scale," Grubb says.

Pink Stone says it will “re-shape the downtown skyline and help revitalize NYC’s Financial District to deliver desperately needed affordable rental units.”

“Our company is dedicated to providing quality rental options for those in the middle of the income spectrum,” Grubb Properties CEO Clay Grubb says. “Link Apartments and essential housing provide a unique path forward to address New York’s housing crisis, as well as a compelling investment opportunity for investors in our funds.”