Potential Problems Seen with Big Hotel/Condo Project, 5 Beekman

Left: The landmark Temple Court Building, soon to be a hotel, and behind it the rising condo tower on Nassau Street. Right: Theater Alley, on the west side of the project, will be the location for deliveries and garbage pickup. Photos: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

A major hotel and condo project on Nassau and Beekman Streets is sparking concerns about traffic tie-ups, safety and noise.

With narrow Nassau Street on one side and Theater Alley on the other, 5 Beekman Street, as the project is called, will include a 51-story condo tower and, to the north, the Beekman Hotel, formerly the 1881 landmark Temple Court office building.

Shown the plans for the project, members of Community Board 1’s Seaport/Civic Center Committee worried about the flow of traffic down narrow Nassau Street, where the tower will have its main entrance.

“There will be a lot of taxis, I’m assuming. It’s a hotel,” said committee member Fern Cunningham, who lives on Nassau Street. “How is that going to work on that street?”

Rob Andrews, the managing director of GB Lodging and Thompson Hotels, the developer of the site, replied that his company has applied for a 100-foot taxi zone in front of the hotel entrance in an attempt to reduce congestion.

“Do you think you can fit two cars down side by side?” Andrews asked Cunningham about Nassau Street.

“It’s pretty tight,” she replied. “It’s a really narrow street.”

“We originally thought about having [the entrance] at 5 Beekman but the application goes to Nassau,” Andrews said.

Then there is Theatre Alley on the west side of the project, between Ann and Beekman Streets. Along that narrow, block-long stretch, condo residents will move into the building, and employees will enter. Deliveries will also be dropped off on the alley and garbage will be disposed there, Andrews said.

Some on the committee wanted to know what the developer would do to improve conditions along the dark and desolate alley, now covered in scaffolding and in a state of poor repair. (Two other residential towers are under construction nearby — one at 19 Beekman St., and another, known as The Lara, at 113 Nassau St.)

“Are you going to be able to improve the lighting on Theatre Alley and the general conditions of it?” asked CB1 chair Catherine McVay Hughes, adding that that CB1 is on record as calling for the alley to be repaved.

Andrews said he would take these concerns back to his staff, adding that “of course we want [Theatre Alley] to be safe and lit for employees coming and going in the early morning and late at night.”

Other committee members voiced concerns about what will be a 10th floor rooftop deck on top of the Beekman Hotel, where Andrews said private contracted events will be held above narrow Nassau Street. The music from those events would echo throughout the neighborhood, disturbing residents of nearby buildings, they maintained.

“There is a canyon effect,” committee chair Marco Pasanella said. “Going forward, to be conscious—of course we don’t want to limit your use, your ability to make money—but we do want you to keep in mind that there are residents all over the place.”

He suggested that the developer meet with the community board to discuss guidelines for the use of the deck space.

“There has to be some kind of informal, formal agreement with this community board as to what they're doing up there and how long they're doing it for and so on,” added member Joel Kopel.

Andrews said that the developer has not yet discussed these noise concerns “in immense detail,” but he would look into them further.

The developer expects to top off the tower—which will house 75 hotel rooms and 68 condo residents—in August, according to Andrews, and concrete work, which is underway now, is scheduled to be completed by the end of September. The first residents are expected to move into the tower during the second quarter of 2016, Andrews said.

The 287-room hotel is expected to open next February, about three months later than initially projected, because of weather delays and the “complexity” of the project, Andrews said.

The hotel also includes two restaurants, one run by famed restaurateur Keith McNally, the other by celebrity chef Tom Colicchio.