(L to R: Rendering credit: Space 4 Architecture; Photo from April 2022 by CityRealty)
Love them or loathe them, a new flock of residential towers is rising on the Lower East Side. With the upscaling and gentrification of the neighborhood showing no signs of slowing down, a slender 30-story condominium has reached full height at 222 East Broadway.
The venture is composed of a ground-up tower rising 333 feet high, and an adjacent Art Deco landmark at 228 East Broadway known as the Bialystoker Center & Home. The development rises near the corner of Clinton Street, on a superblock just east of Seward Park and a block south of the Essex Crossing master plan.
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222 East Broadway (Space 4 Architecture)
Location of 222 East Broadway on the Lower East Side (Google Earth)
Completion is estimated for later this year. A recent site visit saw that the brooding facade with variegated fenestration is well on the way up. Next to go in are the oversized windows and private terraces. An offering plan submitted to the state's Attorney General's office hints the team is gearing up for a sales launch in the coming weeks and a teaser site has been launched to market the studio to four-bedroom layouts to come. CityRealty data shows that the average price of a Lower East Side condo comes to $1,939 per square foot. Listings show a total of 154 units for sale on the Lower East Side, two-thirds of which are condos; these come to a median price of $1,992,500.
The project has survived a long contentious saga with the local community. In November 2016, longtime institution Bialystoker Home for the Aged and the properties next door were purchased for $47.5 million.
One of the buildings in the assemblage had no historic designations, and locals were outraged once a Jewish heritage mural was painted over ahead of the demolition.
The team's unbuilt larger and taller scheme that would use transferred development rights from the Seward Park Co-op complex. (Space 4 Architecture)
To increase the size of the project, developer Optimum sought air rights from the nearby Seward Park Co-op. Some shareholders were in favor since the sale could be used to fund much-needed repairs to the complex. However, the deal did not get the required two-thirds shareholder vote in June 2018, and a reduced in scope development is now being built.
Designer Space 4 Architecture’s vision for the site originally called for a two-towered development around the landmarked building, but a single 30-story, 54-unit is now taking shape. While nowhere near the soaring scale of One Manhattan Square or the proposed 247 Cherry Street, it is nevertheless one of the tallest recent buildings to rise in this section of the Lower East Side. Space 4 Architecture describes the tower as “a vertical village,” but Bowery Boogie is not so impressed, calling it “a jagged mess of condos.”
In addition to the new tower, the project includes the full renovation of the Bialystoker Home for the Aged. The care facility closed in 2011, and the orange brick with distinctive massing and ornamentation is being converted into ten condominium residences with just two homes per floor. Amenities are expected to include a fitness center, an indoor swimming pool, and a 7,000-square-foot private park with a children's playground and barbecuing areas for outdoor entertaining.
Typical Lower East Side vernacular across the street from the project site
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