Six years ago, the city designated Edward J. Minskoff Equities to build a 1-million sq. ft. office tower in the Washington Market Urban Renewal District to the north of the World Trade Center site. Shortly before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the plans were revised to use the site for housing. After negotiations with the community, plans were recently scaled back and today the City Planning Commission closed its public hearing on the proposal, which now calls for a 32-story condominium apartment tower and a lower rental apartment tower on a two-story podium that will contain a 55,000-sq. ft. Whole Foods store.

The plan calls for 230 condominium apartments and 132 rental apartments. Half of the rental units will be market-rate, 30 percent for middle-income and 20 percent for low-income.

About 180 of the condominium units will be in the tower at the corner of West and Warren Streets, just to the south of another new condo tower at 200 Chambers Street. The rest of the condos will be in an adjacent mid-rise structure on Warren Street and they will have loggias screened by two-story-high stone piers. The facade of the condo section of the development will have a checkerboard fenestration pattern and be faced with a sand-colored textured granite from India and the condos will have a fitness center and space and landscaped roof terrace designed by Thomas Balsey on the third floor on the roof of the two-story retail platform.

The rental units will be in another mid-rise structure with its own entrance that will rise six-stories (100 feet) along Greenwich Street and 10 stories (138 feet) along Murray Street.

The building will also have a garage for 400 cars. The developer will contribute $7.5 million for the maintenance of the Washington Market Park and another $3 million for a community center on an adjacent block.