VE Equities, which is headed by Zach Vella and Justin Ehrlich, is building a 9-story residential condominium building at 250 Bowery that will have 24 apartments, according to an article in today's edition of The New York Post by Katherine Dykstra.

It acquired the site after another developer, Peter Moore, gave up on plans for a condo hotel on the site designed by FLAnk Architects. It had been planned to become New York's first green hotel with a perforated Corten steel facade.

The new building has been designed by Morris Adjmi and is notable for its multi-paned windows.

VE's 250 Bowery development is just one of the firm's four new buildings either just entering the market or about to debut. In addition, the development of two land acquisitions is in the works, the article said.

"We're picking the best properties block by block, not even neighborhood by neighborhood. Perfect corner pieces, great frontage on the Bowery," and "we're finding deals that are attractive for our lenders, and we use the same group of lenders all the time. I think they're confident with our ability to execute," Mr. Vella told The Post.

VE's Bowery building doesn't yet have approved pricing, the article continued, adding that it is out of the ground and will be a residential building with roughly 84 feet of store frontage. The 24 condo units, a mix of one- and two-bedrooms, will be on floors three through eight, and there will also be a penthouse level. The one-bedrooms will run around 850 to 900 square feet, the two-bedrooms around 1,100 to 1,200 square feet.

"You see momentum and you see confidence. There's not a lot of product available especially downtown," Vella said, adding that "the confidence is there and the banks are starting to lend again. The stuff they were holding onto in their portfolio - a lot of it is being worked out and things are getting resurrected."

"The team has had success with distressed properties. Over in TriBeCa, 471 Washington was another failed development site, which VE bought out of foreclosure and resurrected into 12 condo units - 75 percent of which were sold at $1,700 to $1,800 per square foot in the first week the building was on the market. Today, 10 of the 12 are under contract. The building will be ready for occupancy in late summer," the article said.

"Also in TriBeCa and also distressed was 1 North Moore," the article continued, "which VE bought out of foreclosure and turned into a boutique development with five unique units, including a 6,000-square-foot townhouse and a 6,000-square-foot penthouse with a private pool. Though the penthouse is on the market for much more, the rest of the units, three of which are on the market at this time, average around $2,000 per square foot."

"And 949 Park Ave., too," the artilcle said, "recently came to market, though it wasn't a distressed site. Indeed, VE worked on it right through the downturn. The Upper East Side building has six duplex apartments all measuring around 2,000 square feet and priced around $2,400 a square foot. There are two units in contract."