The sign on the side of the nearly finished building on West and Desbrosses streets has drawn attention for prominently displaying the curious quote from playwright Edward Albee: “You gotta have swine to show you where the truffles are.”
It’s a quote also displayed on the somewhat mystifying Web site for the building, which gives few details for the project also known as “Truffles Tribeca.” The 291-unit complex by the Jack Parker Corporation, the firm responsible for the 464-unit Biltmore in Midtown West, and the 1,329-unit Parker Towers in Forest Hills, Queens, will offer “market-rate” rents, according to Sha Dinour, president of the Triumph Property Group, which is marketing the project.
He estimates those could likely range from around $2,500 for a studio to $6,000 per month for a large one-bedroom. Dinour said he expects to fill the building six to eight months from the time the rental office opens in January 2009.
The project, which topped out in the spring, has two buildings on the square block bounded by the West Side Highway, Desbrosses, Watts and Washington streets. The 22-story western building faces the Hudson River and will be connected by a bridge 11 stories high to the 14-story eastern building.
Truffles is joining other high-profile buildings along the West Side Highway, such as the Superior Ink building that the Related Companies is constructing and the trio of glass Richard Meier buildings farther north.
Dinour said he is not anticipating offering concessions like a month’s free rent, which several other high-end rentals in Lower Manhattan are currently doing because of the soft market.
Jean-Pierre Vaganay, chief operating officer of the Jack Parker Corporation, sees Tribeca as a unique rental opportunity. “We think that people want rental product, new product, with all the features of a new building, plus there are very, very few sites in Tribeca directly on the waterfront,” he said. Dinour played up the floor-to-ceiling windows at Truffles. “Literally as soon as you open the door, you will see across the river,” he said.
But, other than the views and the prices that Dinour cited to The Real Deal, those associated with the project have been mum with everything from the name, which seems to be pegged to the luxury aspect of the building, to amenities. “We would like our trade secrets to be secrets,” Dinour said.
Those secrets have not gone unnoticed. The real estate Web site Curbed.com, recently labeled it Northern Tribeca’s “most frustrating mystery building,”
But, according to StreetEasy, the architect is Handel Architects. And, in its write-up on the project, the firm mentions “a gym, screening room, bar, game room, valet, library, outdoor garden areas, and a roof garden.” It says the 285,000-square-foot project will have retail space on Washington Street. It also notes that seven loft-like ground floor apartments will open onto a courtyard, and a high tower and a double-height glass lobby area will act as the entrance to the building.
Daniel Baum, chief operating officer at the Real Estate Group New York, the brokerage, said sometimes keeping a low profile helps. “[Some] buildings with 10 to 12 units were marketed quietly, and as a result, it was almost impossible to get in,” he noted.
But, of course, Tribeca Truffles has nearly 300 units to rent.
A spokeswoman for the Jack Parker Corporation, Marisa Zafran, said a Web site with more information would launch in December. Still, Zafran insisted that the firm was “not designing a building that is out of place with the neighborhood.”
The final size of the building was, in fact, a compromise with the community. In 2005 when the Jack Parker Corporation first announced plans for a 175- to 215-foot building at the site, community members blocked the development, saying its height and its density at 10 FAR were too large, said Julie Menin, the chairperson of Community Board 1.
The board also argued it would cast shadows over the streets and block the community’s waterfront views. After many rounds of negotiations, a shorter building with a lower FAR was brought to the table, said Menin.
Construction at the site has not been incident-free. The project had two crane-related accidents in February, the first when a 200-foot crane partially collapsed (with no injuries), and the second days later when workers dismantling a crane suffered serious injuries, according to the city’s Buildings Department.