Towering Neighbor

New Condominiums Rise near the Empire State Building

Developers from New Jersey and Queens have teamed up to build a new 50-story, $200 million residential tower at 325 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

by Diane Greer

A new residential tower diagonally across from the Empire State Building is helping to renew the Fifth Avenue corridor south of 34th Street.

With its distinctive profile, the 50-story, $200 million structure rising at 325 Fifth Avenue will offer 250 luxury condominiums with 10-ft. ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, and an onsite health club. The building is set for completion in late summer or early fall.

Continental Properties, a developer based in Woodbridge, N.J., saw potential in the area some call SoFi, for South Fifth Avenue. In 2003, it purchased the property, which is located on the east side of Fifth Avenue between 32nd and 33rd streets.

"We liked the area and liked the idea that it was on Fifth Avenue," said Mark Fisch, managing partner at Continental Properties.

Fisch said that for its first development project in the city, Continental sought an experienced local partner. It selected Queens-based Douglaston Development, which is owned by Jeff Levine and whose Levine Builders affiliate is handling construction of the project.

"I liked the idea from day one of stepping into New York and being a local player," Fisch said. "Jeff provides that, and he also provides top-quality construction management services."

advertisement

Demolition work on the project started in January 2005 as the project team razed three six-story buildings and a parking lot to make way for the 382,000-sq.-ft., cast-in-place building. It also constructed two below-grade levels housing a 175-space parking garage and tenant storage.

The tower's foundation rests upon bedrock approximately 40 ft. below grade. The excavation required some bracing of adjacent structures.

"We had to chop away a lot of bedrock for the parking lot," said Steven Charno, development manager for Douglaston.

Logistics during construction have been smooth, Charno added.

"It is a crowded area but a lot of staging happens through 33rd Street, where the entrance to the parking garage and a public plaza are located," he said.

A glass curtain wall made up of three types of glass graces the exterior of the structure. Opaque glass hides structural and mechanical elements, while the apartments have both vision and translucent glass. The translucent panels are set below the vision glass in the apartments and will approximate the traditional feel of a window set into an exterior masonry wall, which will prevent occupants from feeling they are in a "glass box" while still letting in ample light, said Stephen Jacobs, project architect with his namesake Stephen B. Jacobs Group, the New York-based designer of the building.

Limestone covers the façade on the lower two floors. "We made the base out of limestone instead of glass so the building has the substance of the existing buildings on the corners," Jacobs said.

The building also has an outdoor public plaza, which allowed it to gain a 20 percent density bonus to make the structure larger under city zoning rules, Jacobs said.

The density bonus also permitted an increase in height to 500 ft. and led to a decision to let apartment layouts dictate the building's shape, Charno said. As a result, instead of a rectangle, the building contours in and out, creating many corners.

"Since the building became taller, we had more to work with and it gave me more opportunities to modulate the top," Jacobs said. "The corners normally have living rooms with balconies to give as many view opportunities as possible."

The result is a series of setbacks and a distinctive profile in the skyline. Each setback features a duplex penthouse with a roof garden and a two-story living room with a fireplace.

The building's taller height required extensive structural planning. Wind tunnel tests indicated the need for shear walls because of diagonal stress on the structure. The design calls for two shear walls, constructed along the plane of the anticipated stress, to stiffen the structure.

One of the walls is an internal structure while the other comprises the north outside wall of the structure, Charno said.

"We also had to increase the thickness of the floor slabs as a result of the wind tunnel test," he added.

An Entire Floor to House Amenities

The outdoor public plaza, which affords a unique view of the Empire State Building, encompasses 7,000 sq. ft. behind the new tower, with an entrance from 33rd Street.

"This is a dense part of the city that really needs public open space," Jacobs said.

A 30-ft.-high atrium filled with bamboo trees and a waterfall will greet people entering the building from Fifth Avenue. Beyond the concierge desk, a gentle incline with an etched metal wall rises to the real lobby, a two-story space that looks out onto the plaza.

"The plaza becomes part of our lobby," Jacobs said.

Apartments within the structure range from 650 to 3,000 sq. ft. Many have balconies and some have large terraces.

The building amenities encompass the entire second floor, including a 10,000-sq.-ft. health club with indoor swimming pool, a club room, an outdoor lounge area, a children's playroom, a screening room, a business center, and an indoor lounge with a marble fireplace. Additional offerings include dog walking and in-room maid services.

"When the building was first conceived, people perceived that location as sort of being out of the way," Jacobs said. "This encouraged the owners and developers to provide the amenities package so it became a sort of standalone destination."

Public response to the project has been tremendous in large part because of the amenities, Fisch said. The developers sold all 250 units within six months last year at prices ranging from $875,000 to $5.5 million. The average was $1.5 million or $1,250 per sq. ft.

"The sale prices on a square footage basis are 50 percent higher than the proforma we presented to the banks," Fisch said.

Key Players

Owner: Douglaston Development,
Queens; Continental Properties, Woodbridge, N.J.

General Contractor: Levine Builders, New York

Architect: Stephen B. Jacobs Group, New York

Interior Design: Andi Pepper Interior Design, New York

Structural Engineer: WSP Cantor Seinuk Structural Engineers, New York

M-E-P Engineers: I.M. Robbins Consulting Engineers, New York

Landscape Architect: Thomas Balsley Associates, New York

Exterior Wall Consultant: Israel Berger & Associates, New York