Builder of Duane Street Hotel Plans Another Hotel in Tribeca

by Ronald Drenger

Developer Sam Chang, whose plans for a hotel on the corner of Duane and Church streets has generated opposition from residents on the block, is planning to build a new six-story hotel in northern Tribeca.

The proposed hotel, at 6 York St., is east of the intersection of West Broadway and Sixth Avenue and adjacent to the 11-story luxury condominium at 260 West Broadway, known as the American Thread Building.

Gene Kaufman, the architect for both hotels, said last month that the York Street hotel design was still being modified but will include about 150 rooms and probably a restaurant or bar.

“How exactly it will be configured, and who the operator is, we don’t know at this point,” Kaufman said.

A spokesman for the Buildings Department said late last month that the developer’s application for a construction permit was under review. The site now has a small parking lot and a one-story garage, which would be torn down.

“We hope to have approvals soon,” Kaufman said. “We hope to start work by the end of the year.”

Members of the condo board of 260 Broadway said that they were aware of the hotel plan but did not want to comment on it without more information. One resident, whose apartment faces south, away from the hotel site, said he was not bothered by the project, but that “many people in the building have questions and concerns” and that “people on the north side of the building are freaking out.”

Zoning regulations permit a hotel and the site is outside Tribeca’s historic districts, so the new building does not need Landmarks approval.

Meanwhile, the six-story, 45-room hotel project at 130 Duane St. is still awaiting a construction permit from the Buildings Department. That hotel is being developed by the Hersha Group, with Chang as the builder.

Chang, who had been the primary developer before Hersha got involved, had told the community two years ago that he was scrapping plans for a hotel and would build residential lofts instead. But he then quietly switched back to the hotel plan.

Residents in the neighborhood have raised concerns about potential street congestion, the impacts of construction on the adjacent building at 134 Duane St., and the possibility that gas tanks were improperly removed from the site, which once contained a service station. They also oppose the planned inclusion of a bar and restaurant in the hotel.