Sales started recently at the "Flowerbox Building" at 259 East 7th Street between Avenues C and D in the East Village.

The building will have 8 condominium apartments promises to be among the most attractive new low-rise buildings in the city and easily the most attractive in the East Village, even more attractive than the huge Lower East Side Consolidation II developments nearby that have three-story red-brick buildings surrounding large communal gardens.

The tree-lined block is one of the nicest in the East Village with several handsome townhouses and it is close to several of the area's very lush and very impressive community gardens.

Seth Tapper is the developer and the building has been designed by Derek Sanders of CAN Resources and WSE Design Partnership Architects are the architects of record.

This building will have a glass-and-metal entrance marquee and large multi-paned windows that recall some of the handsome pre-war industrial buildings in SoHo and TriBeCa. It is setback at the fifth floor and the top three floors are a penthouse apartment with some very large windows.

A rendering of the building indicates that 18-inch-deep planters will run the width of the lower floors, adding to the lushness of this quiet neighborhood.

A few doors to the west is the attractive Iglesia Cristiana Misionera at 247 East 7th Street and at 235 East 7th Street is a handsome orange-brick townhouse flanked by gardens. The northeast corner of 7th Street and Avenue C is an impressive three-story limestone building with a wonderfully colorful terra-cotta clock surround at the curved corner.

The development at 259 East 7th Street is also very close to the very handsome Police Service Area 4 building on the northeast corner of Avenue C and 8th Street, a banded striped two-tone gray-brick building that recalls some of the best work of architect Mario Botta. The southwest corner at the same intersection is occupied by the handsome yellow-and-red-brick, Art Deco-style, 7-story apartment building known as Eastville Gardens.

Derek Sanders is a partner with Serge Becker in CAN Resources and their portfolio includes the new restaurant at Lever House, a residential project at 115 Allen Street, the Standard Hotel in Los Angeles, the Area nightclub in TriBeCa, Fez and the Time Caf¿n NoHo, the Mercer Hotel in SoHo, Joe's Bar at The Public Theater, Buddha Bar and Club USA.

Apartments have 12-foot-high, floor-to-ceiling windows, an installed flat-screen plasma television set in the living room and central air-conditioning and radiant floor heating and the building will have a part-time doorman, private keyed elevator, and all bedrooms fact a community garden.

CityRealty.com previously reported, erroneouosly, that the project will have a garage, but an article in today's edition of The New York Post noted that all residents will receive "two years of free parking at a nearby indoor garage (a deal worth more than $300 a month)."

Two-bedroom, two-bath apartments range in size from 1,539 square feet to 2,780 square feet and one has 1,500 square feet of outdoor space, another has 84 square feet of outdoor space, and one has 86 square feet of outdoor space. Two of the two-bedroom-two-bath units have no outdoor space. There are two three-bedroom, three-bath apartments with 2,576 square feet each and two balconies. The penthouse has five bedrooms and five baths and 6,665 square feet and 1,500 square feet of outdoor space.

Prices range from $1.49 million for a 1,539-square-foot two-bedroom to $11 million for the 7,000-square-foot five-bedroom penthouse. according to the article in The New York Post.