Residential condominium apartment sales will begin shortly at 225 Rector Place, the former Parc Place rental apartment building in Battery Park City.
The 23-story building was erected in 1986 and designed by Gruzen Sampton Steinglass (now Gruzen Samton LLP) for the Related Companies, which sold the 306-unit property in 2005 to YL Real Estate Developers along with Columbus Green at 101 West 87th Street for $165 million.
Related had received tax breaks when it erected the building in exchange for making 20 percent of the units available for moderate-income tenants and in 2002 Related extended that protection to the year 2019 as an inducement for people to stay in the building after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 as it was one of the closest in Battery Park City to Ground Zero.
After paying off a mortgage of the Housing Finance Agency, the new owner, Yair Levy, argued that the provision of rent controls for the moderate-income units no longer applied. While most of the market-rate tenants in the building vacated as their leases expired, the tenants in the moderate-income units remained.
New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer prevailed on Mr. Levy to continue the affordable rent protects for tenants remaining in the building.
The market-rate tenants in the other units have vacated as their leases expired. An article by Josh Rogers in the April 13-19, 2007 edition of the Downtown Express indicated that about 50 apartments in the building were still occupied and that a few tenants are still paying market rates.
The building contains studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments and prices range from about $480,000 for a 519-square-foot studio to more than $1 million for a 959-square-foot one-bedroom apartment.
Richard J. DeMarco of Montroy Andersen Design Group Inc., is the architect for the conversion, which has involved reflooring and installation of soaking tubs in the bathrooms. The building has French windows, a doorman, a concierge, a garage, a roof deck, a residents' lounge with a screening room, a gym and a health club with swimming pool.
The building's three lower floors are clad in limestone and the rest of the facades are clad in two-toned brick.
This large apartment building is quite elegant. It visually divides its mass quite successfully by having a handsome roofline with two "mini" peaks and by carrying the facade of the tower straight down to the entrance without being interrupted by two bandcourses and the cornice line of its wings, a simple but excellent design solution.
This was described as "the most understated and most appropriately detailed of the Rector Park group" by Elliot Willensky and Norval White in their book, "The A.I.A. Guide to New York City, Third Edition," (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988).
The design guidelines for Battery Park City resulted in a relatively homogenous complex of very high quality by Manhattan standards and this building is located in the most successful group around a pleasant park at Rector Place.
The red-brick building, which has multi-paned windows, has 18 apartments per floor in its base and 9 per floor in its tower.
The 23-story building was erected in 1986 and designed by Gruzen Sampton Steinglass (now Gruzen Samton LLP) for the Related Companies, which sold the 306-unit property in 2005 to YL Real Estate Developers along with Columbus Green at 101 West 87th Street for $165 million.
Related had received tax breaks when it erected the building in exchange for making 20 percent of the units available for moderate-income tenants and in 2002 Related extended that protection to the year 2019 as an inducement for people to stay in the building after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 as it was one of the closest in Battery Park City to Ground Zero.
After paying off a mortgage of the Housing Finance Agency, the new owner, Yair Levy, argued that the provision of rent controls for the moderate-income units no longer applied. While most of the market-rate tenants in the building vacated as their leases expired, the tenants in the moderate-income units remained.
New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer prevailed on Mr. Levy to continue the affordable rent protects for tenants remaining in the building.
The market-rate tenants in the other units have vacated as their leases expired. An article by Josh Rogers in the April 13-19, 2007 edition of the Downtown Express indicated that about 50 apartments in the building were still occupied and that a few tenants are still paying market rates.
The building contains studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments and prices range from about $480,000 for a 519-square-foot studio to more than $1 million for a 959-square-foot one-bedroom apartment.
Richard J. DeMarco of Montroy Andersen Design Group Inc., is the architect for the conversion, which has involved reflooring and installation of soaking tubs in the bathrooms. The building has French windows, a doorman, a concierge, a garage, a roof deck, a residents' lounge with a screening room, a gym and a health club with swimming pool.
The building's three lower floors are clad in limestone and the rest of the facades are clad in two-toned brick.
This large apartment building is quite elegant. It visually divides its mass quite successfully by having a handsome roofline with two "mini" peaks and by carrying the facade of the tower straight down to the entrance without being interrupted by two bandcourses and the cornice line of its wings, a simple but excellent design solution.
This was described as "the most understated and most appropriately detailed of the Rector Park group" by Elliot Willensky and Norval White in their book, "The A.I.A. Guide to New York City, Third Edition," (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988).
The design guidelines for Battery Park City resulted in a relatively homogenous complex of very high quality by Manhattan standards and this building is located in the most successful group around a pleasant park at Rector Place.
The red-brick building, which has multi-paned windows, has 18 apartments per floor in its base and 9 per floor in its tower.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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