Southbridge Towers, 299 Pearl Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 299 Pearl Street by Carter Horsley

This low-rise structure is part of the attractive, 9-building complex known as Southbridge Towers that contains 1,651 apartments and was erected in 1971 by Tishman Realty & Construction Company.

Five of the buildings are six stories high and the other four at 27 stories high.  It is to the west of the South Street Seaport.

Five of the buildings – 100 Beekman Street, 77 Fulton Street, 90 Gold Street, 333 Pearl Street, and 299 Pearl Street – are condominium buildings.

The complex, which is bound by Pearl, Frankfort, Gold and Fulton streets, was designed by Gruzen & Partners.

In September, 2014, the residents voted to privatize under the Mitchell-Lama law and reconstitute as a private co-op.

The complex is east of a 9-story office building on Gold Street that was part of the $88 million Brooklyn Bridge Southwest Urban Renewal project that included a new campus for Pace College and a new apartment development, Southbridge Towers, according to a June 4, 1967 article in The New York Times.

Bottom Line

This large and handsome complex of co-operative apartments has a prime location between City Hall and the Civic Center, the South Street Seaport, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Financial District.

Description

The attractive, red-brick buildings have light-colored banding between floors, many balconies and some corner buildings.

The low-rise buildings are connected to the towers and one group of these buildings are clustered with a large courtyard. 

Part of the complex borders on the north a Brooklyn Bridge approach ramp and the complex is not far from the New York Gehry rental tower to the west and the South Street Seaport to the east.

The complex has extensive landscaping.

Apartments

In Building 7, there are 10 apartments per floor with 11 balconies.

In Buildings 3 and 5 that are massed in a U-shape there are there are 13 units in each building with a total of 10 balconies.  Each building has a double-loaded, L-shaped corridor.

Apartment 10D at 100 Beekman Street is a two-bedroom unit with a 12-foot-wide entry foyer that leads to an 18-foot-wide living/dining room with a 10-foot-wide balcony and an enclosed, 10-foot-wide kitchen.

Apartment 5H at 80 Beekman Street is a two-bedroom unit with a 21-foot-wide living/dining room with an 18-foot-wide balcony and an 11-foot-long kitchen.

Apartment 14E at 90 Gold Street is a one-bedroom unit with a 25-foot-long living room with a 10-foot-wide terrace and a 10-foot-long enclosed kitchen.

Apartment 23M at 333 Pearl Street is a one-bedroom unit with a 13-foot-long living room with a 10-foot-wide terrace, an open 13-foot-wide dining area next to a 10-foot-wide kitchen.

History

A November 14, 2014 article by Ronda Kaysen at The New York Times noted that “most New Yorkers would look upon the good fortune of the residents of Southbridge Towers with envy,” adding that “they paid, on average, $17,500 for their Lower Manhattan apartments, many with stunning East River views” and that “after a contentious eight-year debate, shareholders voted to leave Mitchell-Lama, the affordable housing program that provided them with decades of low-cost housing,” a decision that paved “the way for residents to sell their apartments are market rate and reap profits in the high six figures.”

The article described the complex as “the largest Mitchell-Lame co-op in Manhattan to privatize at a time when the city is struggling to hold onto its dwindling stock of affordable housing,” adding that “Mitchell-Lama, a program created in 1955, added thousands of units of affordable housing – both limited equity co-ops and rentals – for middle-class New Yorkers.

The residents of the complex successfully thwarted the plans of the Milstein family to build an apartment tower on a large parking lot directly to its east because of concerns it would obstruct its river views.  The Milsteins acquired the lot in 1979 and in 1984 proposed a 43-story tower and subsequently submitted several different plans by different architects to no avail in one of the city’s longest anti-development battles.