Greenwich Street is poised to regain its former glory in 2016 when the World Trade Center complex is complete and the thoroughfare becomes one again, the New York Times reported. The revival will be carried by the World Trade Center buildings, which will all boast the street’s name as alternate addresses, and be supplemented by several high-profile hotel projects rising on the street.
“It is literally as if a new city is being built around Greenwich Street,” said Hidrock Realty President Abraham Hidary, who plans a 320-room hotel at 133 Greenwich Street. At 123 Greenwich Street, Michael Stenhardt and Allan Fried are building a 174-room hotel with 100,000 square feet of retail space. Three more hotels, totaling 630 rooms, are also rising nearby at 99 Washington Street, 99 Church Street and 87 Chambers Street.
The street’s revival can be attributed to its forthcoming unification. It had spent the last four decades divided by World Trade Center superblocks, and prior to that was overshadowed by other transportation developments.
“Greenwich Street is fast becoming the key north-south corridor it was for hundreds of years,” said Alliance for Downtown New York President Elizabeth Berger. “It will knit the World Trade Center into the rest of Lower Manhattan … I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years we start calling the towers by their Greenwich Street address.”
In fact, Jack Resnick & Sons has already caught on to that idea. It renamed 75 Park Place to capitalize on the street’s growing cache — the building is now called 255 Greenwich Street. [NYT]