250 West Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 250 West Street by Carter Horsley

250 West Street is an attractive, 11-story renovated warehouse building at 250 West Street at Hubert Street in TriBeCa that was converted in 2012 by The El Ad Group to 111 condominium residents. 

It was El Ad’s first new condominium project since it converted part of the Plaza Hotel in 2006. Other El Ad conversions of historic structures include 21 Astor Place, a 50-unit condo in a Romanesque former library building, and the O’Neill Building, at 655 Avenue of the Americas, which once housed a department store. 

The building was built in 1898 and designed by William H. Birkmire. Gail Nauer Architects handled the conversion. 

It faces the West Side Highway and the Hudson River and stretches from West to Washington streets.

Bottom Line

A handsome former large warehouse overlooking the Hudson River in TriBeCa that was converted to residential condominiums in 2012 by The El Ad Group.

Description

The full-block building has a three-story limestone base with arched pediments spanning two windows each.  

Its red-brick masonry façade has rusticated piers and curved stone elements above most windows. 

The 10^th floor has an unusual stone treatment above the windows that is angularly arched between the windows rather than over them. 

The building has two major entrances with 10-foot-high iron gates. 

El Ad created a center courtyard in its conversion and replaced an aluminum band around the top of the building with a recreation of an historic cornice. 

The building has an 8-step-up entrance with a large marquee over two large rounded and polished red-granite columns. The entrance also has a long disabled access ramp. 

It has an exposed rooftop watertank. 

Amenities

The building has a 24-hour concierge, a live-in superintendent, a roof deck, a fitness center with a 61-foot-long swimming pool, a children’s playroom, a laundry, storage on every floor and a large library. 

The building is pet-friendly.

Apartments

Apartments have walk-in closets, washers and dryers, and high ceilings, some as high as 13 feet. 

Kitchens have Sub-Zero and Bosch appliances and Poggenpohl cabinetry. 

Bathrooms have marble floors. 

The four-bedroom, five-bathroom penthouse was put on the market in April, 2013 with an asking price of $42 million.  It has its own private elevator, private lobby with room for one car, and a 4,350-square-foot terrace. 

Apartment 1A is a 1,379-square-foot loft with 1,097-square feet of storage space.  It has a 27-foot-long living/dining room with an open, pass-through kitchen. 

Apartment A on the 3^rd through the 6^th floors is a two-bedroom unit with a 28-foot-long living/dining room with an open kitchen with an island. 

Apartment 11H is a three-bedroom unit with 4,018 square feet of interior space and 325 square feet of outside space.  It has a 35-foot-long living/dining room with an open kitchen with an island.

History

An August 14, 2009 article by Pete at curbed.com reported that it had “been over a year since there was any action at 250 West Street, where a group of Russian investors reportedly purchased from Elad Properties the neo-Renaissance style…warehouse designed by William H. Birkmire. The plan was to convert it to a batch of 80-90 condos and, up top, add a 5,000-square-foot penthouse with sweeping views of the Hudson and points west. The big project, set for completion in 2010, was said to be designed by the British firm of David Chipperfield Architects. All those optimistic plans were stymied by last fall's big freeze. Then, this June, an Elad executive told the Downtown Express that the Russians had defaulted on the purchase." 

The article went on to say that new applications showed up at the Department of Buildings and listed El-Ad 250 West LLC as the owner and Francis Pisani as the architect, adding that the Landmarks Preservation Commission had scheduled an August 11, 2009 hearing to review a temporary mock structure on the roof but that the hearing had been laid over for a future date. 

The building had been bought by Elad for $142 million from Citigroup and an article by Lois Weiss in The New York Post said that the 371,000-square-foot building will “likely be leased back by the financial services giant for about two years while plans for a luxury condo conversion are solidified.” 

The building is across Hubert Street from the low-rise wing at 390 Greenwich Street of the Citibank skyscraper at 388 Greenwich Street just to the north of the very attractive Independence Plaza North development that was completed in 1975. 

An article by Alan Oser in the March 9, 1986 edition of The New York Times reported that in 1981, Bruce Sinder and Steven Levin bought a 50 percent interest in a package of buildings that included 250 West Street, which was then partly vacant. The article indicated that Mr. Sinder calculated that his partnership had a $900,000 stake in the West Street Building that in 1986 was “under contract for sale for $17 million” to a company that hoped to rehabilitate the building into first-class office space. 

A May 18, 1994 article in Real Estate Weekly by Lois Weiss  indicated that Smith Barney Shearson bought 250 West Street, which is also known as 34 Hubert Street, for $28,846,000. The article noted that 34 Hubert Street Associates, of which John J. McMullen and Howard M. Peck were principals, bought the building in June, 1987, for $23.5 million.