Silverstein Partners with Four Seasons for New Downtown Development
Silverstein Properties President and CEO Larry A. Silverstein today announced an agreement with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts - the world leader in luxury hospitality and service - to operate a hotel and private residences within a new development at 99 Church Street in Lower Manhattan. The announcement was made at a breakfast sponsored by the Alliance for Downtown New York and the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association.
Located between Barclay Street and Park Place, the new development will be home to a Four Seasons Hotel in the first twenty-two floors of the eighty-story tower, which will also include a restaurant. The remainder of the approximately 912-foot-tower will accommodate private residences, which will be managed by Four Seasons. The development also will include a public plaza.
Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, the leader in value creation for the world's most prestigious luxury residential developers, will handle marketing and sales of the condominiums.
The elegant tower is designed by the renowned Robert A.M. Stern Architects and developed by Silverstein Properties, which is simultaneously developing three office towers at the World Trade Center. Robert A.M. Stern Architects will also be designing the hotel public spaces and residence interiors. Yabu Pushelberg is the hotel interior designer. SLCE Architects is the architect-of-record. Construction will begin in June of this year with completion anticipated in early 2011.
"Our partnership with Four Seasons serves as further validation of Downtown's ongoing transformation into a dynamic, sustainable and unparalleled urban community," said Mr. Silverstein. "This evolution will reach its apex in the coming years as a resurgent Lower Manhattan economy, anchored by a 21st century global business hub at the World Trade Center, merges seamlessly with a first-class residential, hotel and tourist community that will serve as a model for cities all over the world."
The Hotel and Private Residences will offer the growing residential and business communities a high level of service and style unique to the Downtown area. The Hotel will consist of 175 rooms, a premier restaurant, lounge, full-service spa and health club with pool. Over one-quarter of the hotel rooms will be suites, including a 3,700-square-foot royal suite. The residential area will include 143 luxury condominiums, as large as 6,500 square feet. Amenities for the private residents are located between the Hotel and Residences and include a 75-ft heated indoor pool, fitness center, lounge area, and children's room.
"We have been privileged to manage a truly iconic hotel in New York, on 57th Street, with Ty Warner, our visionary owner," said Kathleen Taylor, President and Chief Operating Officer, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. "This development, with the combined vision of Silverstein Properties and Robert Stern, promises to be another exciting project as it re-invents the historic downtown district."
Sharing a city block with the Woolworth Building, Cass Gilbert's iconic 1913 skyscraper, and strategically located one block from the World Trade Center redevelopment site, the new mixed-use tower will become a distinct landmark among the city's skyscrapers.
"99 Church will counterpoint the glass-and-steel office towers that Larry Silverstein and his organization are building along Greenwich Street, and together these buildings will help Lower Manhattan realize its potential as a great place to live and work. I am proud to be a part of this effort," said Robert A.M. Stern, founder and senior partner of Robert A.M. Stern Architects and Dean of the Yale School of Architecture.
The hotel entrance on Barclay Street will lead visitors into four floors of lobbies, lounges, restaurant, ballrooms, and meeting facilities, as well as a spa, fitness center and pool. A second entrance to the restaurant will be on Church Street. The public rooms of the hotel face a through-block landscaped public plaza framed by a lower annex building that conceals building services and access to below-grade parking.
A separate entrance and lobby at 30 Park Place serves the residences. The limestone and cast stone shaft of the tower will rise to a dramatic skyline profile of full-floor penthouses and setback terraces.
"Corcoran Sunshine is thrilled to partner with the prestigious team on 30 Park Place, a development that will unquestionably advance the revitalization efforts of Downtown and provide the city with a lauded new landmark on its skyline," said Corcoran Sunshine President, Kelly Kennedy Mack.
According to the Downtown Alliance, the neighborhood's residential and hotel stock are expected to increase dramatically in the coming years. Over 5,400 new residential units are in development. More than 3,700 new hotel rooms are currently under construction or planned in Lower Manhattan, and an estimated 1.27 million unique hotel guests will stay in the area each year beginning in 2009.
"Larry Silverstein is a tireless advocate for Lower Manhattan and a major factor in Downtown's incredible revitalization," said Elizabeth H. Berger, President of the Alliance for Downtown New York. "He helped jump-start redevelopment in Lower Manhattan by rebuilding 7 World Trade Center in near record time, and the wide range of tenants this architecturally significant building has attracted only adds to Downtown's robust and diversifying economy. Larry's on-going development of the World Trade Center site and his exciting new project at 99 Church Street are reasons why Lower Manhattan's dynamic live/work community is a global model for urban centers of the 21st century."
The pre-existing building at 99 Church Street was the former headquarters of Moody's Corporation. The site was purchased by and is being redeveloped through Metro Fund, LLC, a joint venture of Silverstein Properties and the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS), a pension fund. Last month, the partnership acquired 1177 Avenue of the Americas and, in 2006, purchased 575 Lexington Avenue.
Demolition of the pre-existing building began in October 2007. Foundation work for the new tower is expected to start in June 2008. Tishman Construction Corporation, which built 7 World Trade Center for Silverstein Properties in 2006 and is the general contractor for several other Lower Manhattan projects including the Freedom Tower and the Goldman Sachs headquarters, is serving as Construction Manager on the project.
The redevelopment of the 99 Church Street site is designed to work in tandem with the revitalization of the World Trade Center, which together promises a brighter, more vibrant future for Downtown New York through a dynamic mix of superior commercial space, a modernized and more convenient transportation system, and a range of cultural and retail destinations. The Downtown Alliance estimates that between 10 and 12 million people will visit Downtown annually upon the completion of the WTC Memorial and Museum in 2012.
