Towering 50 West St. Project Still in Limbo

Plans for a financially-strapped 62-story apartment-and-hotel project on lower West Street continue to languish six years after the developer got the city’s green light to build.

So much time has elapsed that the developer, Time Equities, Inc., must renew the city’s special permits for 50 West Street, a 730-foot-high structure with a hotel on its five lower floors and 300 apartments above.

“We need these renewals in order to go ahead with the project,” Zachary Bernstein, an attorney for Time Equities, told Community Board 1 last week.

Time Equities has yet to score financing for the project.

The permits, which must be renewed every few years, allow the developer to position the tower further back on the lot, build higher through the purchase of air rights from the city, and create a public plaza connecting West and Washington Streets.

The plaza would connect to a pedestrian bridge over West Street at West Thames, due to open in 2015.

As a display of community good will, Time Equities donated $435,000 in computers and tech support to Battery Park City’s PS/IS 89 and $350,000 to the New York City Center for Space Science Education.

Time Equities has set 2017 as its new target date for completing the building.

“We’re hoping to get started on the project as soon as our financing comes together,” Rob Singer, Time Equities’ director of development, told the Trib. “We’re working hard on it every day.”