Construction frenzy to reshape look of city south of Canal

Four years from now, Lower Manhattan will be virtually unrecognizable.

More than 70 construction projects are currently underway in the farthest tip of Downtown, encompassing a mix of residential towers, hotels, commercial spaces and a revamped waterfront. The neighborhood has also benefited from an influx of more than $30 billion in public and private investment.

“We’re now seeing so many pieces — some projects that have been in the making for a decade — all coming online in the next few years,” Jessica Lappin, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York, told DNAinfo.

Twenty-four apartment buildings, totaling 3,100 units, will open Downtown by 2017, according to data from the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center cited by DNAinfo. Larry Silverstein’s 30 Park Place, to hold a 185-room Four Seasons hotel and 157 luxury condominiums, will open in 2016. The Jenga-tower 56 Leonard, expected to be Tribeca’s tallest building, will also open in 2015.

Fourteen hotels, totaling 3,000 rooms, will open south of Canal Street by 2017, according to the report. Nine will open their doors this year, and another four plan to begin taking guests in 2015.

Several retail, restaurant and transit hubs will also soon reshape Lower Manhattan, with Brookfield Place’s new restaurants in several of the World Trade Center buildings and Fulton Center’s transit hub to open by 2016. [DNAinfo] — Julie Strickland