456 Washington Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 456 Washington Street by Carter Horsley

This handsome, 11-story rental apartment building at 456 Washington Street in TriBeCa was designed by BKSK for Related Companies and the Ponte family.  It opened in 2016 and has 106 apartments, 22 of which are “affordable.”

Interiors are by the Rockwell Group. Mathews Nielsen did the landscape design.

The site was once occupied by a gas station one block removed from Ponte’s Restaurant on Desbrosses Street. 

The Ponte family, according to an a 2014 article in The Wall Street Journal by Josh Barbanel “once owned the largest garbage-carting company in the city” but “in the 1990s they were forced to get out of the business after a key executive, Angelo Ponte, pleaded guilty to charges that he had joined an organized crime-controlled cartel to control the industry.” 

Mr. Barbanel’s article said that the city’s Independent Budget Office projects that the city would
“forego $16.7 million in tax revenue from the building over 20 years, or an average of $837,000 a year, in exchange for creating and maintaining low-income housing.”

“The decision to provide affordable units also triggered other benefits for the project.  Related was able to borrow $7.5 million through tax-exempt bonds to pay for construction, and is in line to obtain Federal tax credits it can sell to subsidize the cost of affordable housing.  In addition, the zoning code allows the building to qualify for a zoning bonus for providing affordable housing that can be sold to other nearby developers,” Mr. Barbanel wrote.

“The 11 low-income two-bedroom apartments at 456 Washington Street will rent for $1,041 for a family of four with an income of between $37,132 and $51,780 while their next-door neighbors may pay close to 10 times that,” according to Mr. Barbanel.

Bottom Line

This TriBeCa building has many amenities and the apartments have large living/dining rooms.

Description

Its rose-colored brick façade on its base is topped with a dark metal façade above. 

One bay of its façade on Washington Street rises without setback while three others rise two stories above the setback.

The two bays on Washington Street have bay windows.

The building has a very large and impressive hanging metal entrance marquee with sidewalk landscaping. 

Amenities

The building has a 24-hour concierge and doorman, library with an outdoor terrace, a children’s playroom, a valet garage, cold storage, a gym, a laundry, a bicycle room and roof deck with glass railings.

Apartments

Five-bedroom units have entry foyers that lead to a 34-foot-long living/dining room with a bay window flanked by private terraces.  The living/dining room is adjacent to an open, 10-foot-long kitchen with an island.

Four-bedroom units have entry foyers that lead past open kitchens to 26-foot-long living/dining rooms.  The master bedroom opens onto a very large private terrace.

Three-bedroom units have an entry foyer that leads to a 26-foot-long living/dining room with an open kitchen with an island.

Two-bedroom units have an entry foyer that leads past an open, pass-through kitchen to a 21-foot-long living room.