From left: Citizen and the Harsen House (click to enlarge)In its modest, soft-spoken way, “Citizen” is one of the weirdest names that a developer, in this case Anbau Properties, has yet bestowed upon a Manhattan residential development. True, this is an election year, but next year will not be, and the building in question, at 124 West 23rd Street, will still be there. Come to think of it, 2008 — when plans for the site first emerged — was also an election year. In any case, it is hard to divine the purpose of the name.

The 16-story tower, flanked on its eastern side by a building of roughly equal height, contains 34 residences, as well as 4,000 square feet of retail at street level. It was designed by BKSK Architects, who worked with the same developer to create Harsen House, at 120 West 72nd Street. And like that building, it rises over what was once a group of row houses. [more]

124 West 23rd Street

When its Chelsea condo hits the market next week, Anbau Enterprises will be the latest in a series of developers to eschew the trend towards ultra-luxury development and bank on (relative) affordability to sell units.

The Wall Street Journal reported that like Brodsky Organization’s 422 West 20th Street in Chelsea and John Buck Company’s Reade57 in Tribeca, Anbau Enterprise’s 124 West 23rd Street won’t feature the glass exteriors, extra frills, or super-luxurious amenities that characterized the city’s condo boom last decade. [more]

From left: Barbara van Beuren, managing partner, and Stephen Glascock, president, both of Anbau Enterprises, and the stalled condo at 124 West 23rd Street

Living in Manhattan practically forces residents to live cheek by jowl, and sometimes that proximity creates disputes that stand in the way of new residential developments. That appears to be the case with developer Anbau Enterprises’ planned 16-story condominium tower at 124 West 23rd Street, near Sixth Avenue.

Anbau filed a lawsuit Feb. 14 claiming Arthur Minerof, who indirectly owns the buildings on either side of the site, has effectively “paralyzed” construction by preventing workers from accessing his properties to install protective measures. The adversaries are gearing up to meet before a judge March 7, but in the meantime, the city’s Department of Buildings has ordered Anbau to stop some of its work. [more]

Attendees at the 124 West 23rd Street groundbreaking, from left: Barbara van Beuren and Stephen Glascock of Anbau Enterprises; Todd Poisson and George Schieferdecker of BKSK Architects; Robert Lerner of the Bank of New York Mellon

Developer Anbau Enterprises broke ground today on the 16-story eco-friendly condominium it’s been planning for 124 West 23rd Street since before the market crashed. An exterior rendering of the project isn’t yet available, but the company, which has been behind projects like 110 Central Park South and Harsen House at 120 West 72nd Street, has tapped BKSK Architects to design a 34-unit building, complete with floor-to-ceiling windows and Juliette balconies. Scheduled for completion during the summer of 2012, the condo will have studios, one-bedrooms, two-bedrooms and penthouses as well as 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. TRD [more]