Plans for the Boltex Building and Belle Reve at Walker and Church – Tribeca Citizen

Developers have put a proposal together for the corner of Walker and Church, incorporating the taxpayer that is Belle Reve, #32, into the L-shaped building that is #34 and creating a new cast iron building. I will continue with the details below, but one thing confounds me: from what I can tell, 32 Walker has not changed hands since 1981; 34 Walker, acquired in 1966 by the family that ran the Paramount/Boltex Textile Company, has a contract signed according to the listing, but has not changed hands yet. So it seems a bit premature?

All that aside, its best to look at the massing drawing above to understand: the dark grey is the existing L-shaped Paramount/Boltex building, and the light gray is the new construction. The idea is to merge these two into a single cast iron project. They developers would add a sixth floor to the entire structure, which is within zoning limits, and that floor would get the crown that mimics the current one plus a glass penthouse set back from the street wall. The new structure would lose the fire escapes. The color would match 55 Reade, the cast iron building on the corner of Broadway.

The developers are Cedric Abboud and Gary Romaniello, and Abboud said he is very active in the UK doing historic restorations in Chelsea and Kensington as well as the Middle East, but this is only their our second year in the US as a developer. SOMA Architects, led by his brother, Michel Abboud, was the architect for the failed 45 Park Place the supertall that is still left hanging and is, IMO, a blight on the neighborhood.

The new building would actually be cast in iron; the developers said they were meeting last week with the Alabama company Robinson Iron. And all of this is very preliminary: they have submitted a request for the application with Landmarks and have been assigned a staff member. But they wanted to come to CB1 early to get their feedback.

The committee thought it was a bit too early they had a hard time digesting the plans without more detail. And no vote was taken. But there were some that were fully accepting of the plan, and thought that they were off to a good start, and some that thought it was too Disney (I dont quite get that?) and didnt delineate between the old structure and the new.

If someone is willing to spent the money to make a beautiful cast iron on the corner, then generally I am in favor of that, said chair Jason Friedman. The true preservationist would say this is not a good idea.

The Belle Reve building was built in 1954 it is not protected by the historic district. The Boltex Building was built in 1868.

A woman representing Belle Reve said that demolishing the bar would be devastating for the neighborhood, especially just to build more expensive apartments. Belle Reve brings so much life to that corner, she said. It would be very said to see it go.

The developers said there was no reason the new building couldnt have a bar in its storefronts.

See the article here:
Plans for the Boltex Building and Belle Reve at Walker and Church - Tribeca Citizen