Earlier this week, the city approved plans for a 22-story, nearly 220,000-square-foot commercial development at 2420 Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights. Developed by Youngwoo and Associates, the 38,000-square-foot site previously held a Shell gas station which the developers picked up in 2012 for $12 million.
Permits were first filed in spring 2016 and the project has since gained an additional four floors. Filings show Stonehill Taylor Architects have replaced Marvel Architects as the architects of record. The building will have office, hotel and retail space divided between three components encircling an inner courtyard. The tallest wing holds the offices and faces onto heavily-trafficked West 181st Street. The tower would stand 22 stories and over 260 feet high, making it one of the tallest buildings in the neighborhood.
The hotel wings will host 192 rooms and typical lodging amenities. Its volumes will wrap around Amsterdam Avenue to West 180th Street where the building scales down to four floors. The hotel’s top floor along with the 12th floor of the office tower will have an event space with an outdoor terrace. Other details listed in the filings include a 169-car underground garage, a ground-floor restaurant, and another event space/outdoor terrace on the office tower’s top floor.
The site overlooks the Harlem River and Highbridge Park and is just off an exit to the Harlem River Drive and George Washington Bridge/Trans-Manhattan Expressway (I-95). The low-rise nature of the neighborhood will present sweeping views of Manhattan, the Hudson River, and the Palisades.
Back in 2014, we reported that neighborhood opened their first two hotels. They are the Hotel Cliff, located just across 181st Street from this project, and The Edge Hotel on 168th Street.