While the West Village has substantially changed in recent decades, its charm, grace, and serenity live on. Though more expensive than it's ever been in its 400-year-old history (now the priciest in the city to buy a condo), this subarea of the old village of Greenwich has been safeguarded from out-of-place construction thanks to a sprawling historic district that encompasses nearly its entirety. The outsized demand from those wanting to get in has led to a run-up in prices across the board, causing the area to shed much of its blue-collar legacy, bohemian feel, and interacting uses along the way. With the area increasingly functioning as an open-air museum to all but the very wealthy, visitors can still look forward to a city recovery that will fill empty storefronts and revive its famed outdoor dining and cafe' scene.
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Last fall, The Post broke the news that Oscar-award-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence and her husband, Cooke Maroney, were drawn to the neighborhood for the very same reasons you and I would. They zeroed in on 17 Jane Street, a rare new development situated on a lightly-trekked street running askew to the Manhattan grid.
While Lawrence's enormous 5,090-square-foot, four-bedroom spread is already accounted for — it closed for $21.95 million last July — the newly-finished building has several more commodious pads available. The Minskoff Equities-led development team has provided us new looks inside, where we'll simultaneously dig into why the building is asking top-of-the-market prices and attracted the A-list actress.
The Location
Tucked mid-block on Jane Street, between Greenwich and Eighth Avenues, 17 Jane Street's location enjoys little vehicular traffic and a surplus of light and air due to most of the area's buildings being no taller than eight stories. 17 Jane is in the most accessible part of the West Village, close to Chelsea, the Meatpacking District, and Greenwich Village; and around the corner from the beautifully confusing West 4th Street. Though we'd be surprised to see JLaw on the subway, the A, C, E,1,2,3, and L trains are all within a five-minute walk.Named after a little-known landowner named Mr. Jaynes, five-block-long Jane Street is jokingly said to have "more published authors per square foot than any other street in the city." The area also has some of New York's oldest surviving buildings, with many dating back to and before the Civil War. Just next door, at 21-25 Jane Street, stands a four-story building built in 1868 for the Bronze Works Manufacturing Company. 17 Jane Street, however, replaced a "non-contributing" two-story, parking garage erected in 1926. That utilitarian building usurped the Jane Street Methodist Episcopal Church, for which the 1888 engraving of a "revival meeting" is shown below.
The Architect
17 Jane Street was designed by Sir David Chipperfield, head of the global architectural practice bearing his name. A less-is-more Modernist at heart, London newspaper The Guardian has described his work as "serious, solid, not flamboyant or radical, but comfortable with the history and culture of its setting." Upon the announcement of his new project at 17 Jane Street, developer Edward Minskoff told The New York Times that he wanted to hire a “world-class architect” for the project “because there’s probably a very, very good chance that I will move there.”Chipperfield's other New York projects are similarly staid. They include a redesign of the modern and contemporary art wing of the Metropolitan Museum and a new North American headquarter tower for Rolex. His first ground-up building in the city was The Bryant, a 33-story hotel and condominium that overlooks Bryant Park is distinguished by a terrazzo facade. Its units have sold at top-of-the-market prices and we recently added the building to our CityRealty 100 top NYC condo building list.
The Design
After some back-and-forth wrangling with the Landmarks Preservation Commission concerning height and facade treatments -- one commissioner compared the initial glass-and-concrete facade to a Marriott Hotel -- the commission approved the weighted, red-brick design that we see today. While there was no height limit for the site, the six-story building measures just 85 feet high so as not to overwhelm its neighbors and likely to not obstruct the views of well-heeled neighbors in the co-op building behind. Other understated details include traditional lintels. Roman-course brickwork, black-iron railings, and bronze casement windows.The Homes
While the West Village does have several prestigious co-op buildings, most notably the ones designed by Bing & Bing, the quintessence of Village living lies within the 19th-century townhouses that line its often-Belgian-blocked sidestreets. There are spatial and technological limits to a 150-year-old building, however, and 17 Jane Street attempts to marry some of that old-world graciousness with modern advancements.The capacious three- to five-bedroom homes can be accessed through an attended lobby. Other resident perks, shared by just seven units, include a fitness center, sauna, private storage, and a resident-only parking garage accessed through a car elevator. Furthermore, the two massive townhouse units have their own private backyards and the penthouse has nearly 2,000 square feet of outdoor terraces.
New photography released by the team reveals the gracious proportions and calming details that define all aspects of the building. Staged by ASH NY, the model unit sports comfortable furnishings selected to not compete with the subtle high-quality detailing. Homes have wide-plank oak flooring, marble slabs in the kitchens and baths, and handcrafted stonework.
The Prices
Prices for new condos in the West Village now rival those seen in Tribeca and park-side areas of the Upper East Side. In fact, last week's biggest deal in the city came in from a similarly-boutique building at 601 Washington Street, where a townhouse-condo unit closed for $18.25 million. Remaining homes at 17 Jane Street average north of $4,100 per square foot with the remaining "East Townhouse" asking $26.6 million according to the latest amendment to the offering plan. A handful of simplex units are also available from $9.995M.
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