Rendering looking south down the Hudson River waterfront with COOKFOX's design for 550 Washington on the left-hand side (COOKFOX)
Editor's note: A representative from Atlas Capital and Westbrook informed 6sqft that Oxford only purchased the development rights for the south portion of the site; St. John’s Center partners still own and plan to develop the north site. Though these renderings illustrate the project scope approved by the city, they do not represent the final design.
This past December, we presented new renderings of the redevelopment of the St. John’s Terminal at 550 Washington Street along the Hudson Square-West Village waterfront. The nearly two-million-square-foot project is to be spearheaded by Oxford Properties Group and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board after purchasing the site last year for $700 million from Westbrook Partners and Atlas Capital Group. According to previously released plans, the project will bring 1,600 apartments (30 percent of them below market rate), 400,000 square feet of retail, a hotel, and office space to the three-block site overlooking the Hudson River Park.
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Rendering looking north up the waterfront with Hudson Yards' Coach tower in the distance
As we previously noted, the project's architects, COOKFOX, have shaped a strong-boned sculptural design that erupts into the skyline as a mountain of cascading setbacks and planted terraces — resembling some of the work of Habitat-designer Moshe Safdi. Now, two more renderings have surfaced giving us a better sense of the scale of the landmark project.
The tallest tower of the five-building plan will anchor the corner of Clarkson and West streets and stretch nearly 400 feet high. One rendering looks north up the waterfront with Hudson Yards in the background, while the other looks south towards the World Trade Center. The terminal building sits across from the nearly-finished condo 160 Leroy, where some units have asked well above $4,000 per ft². As one of the last and largest development sites along the Manhattan shoreline, we expect the nothing less than the same for the market-rate apartments.
The large-scale plan is made possible through a unique, $100 million deal where the Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) will transfer more than 200,000 square feet of air rights to the developers. The trust will use the funds to repair ailing Pier 40 across West Street. The developers hoped to break ground in 2017, but a recent visit shows little evidence of any demolition or construction work. An application submitted to the Department of Buildings earlier this month calls for the removal of the northern portion of the terminal building and the installation of a new facade.
St. John Terminal buildings with 160 Leroy in the background as of late-June 2018 (CityRealty)
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