carl glassman / the tribeca trib

Standing on what will be the terrace of the fifth-floor cocktail lounge of the Moinian Group’s W Hotel, assistant project manager Daniel Huster looks at the current view, the remains of the Deutsche Bank building.

At the corner of Albany and Washington streets, just a block below the World Trade Center site, is the odd nexus between a vestige of Lower Manhattan’s scarred past and a part of its shimmering, crystalline future.

Across the street from the empty, toxic husk of the former Deutsche Bank building stands what will be the 58-story, $240 million luxury hotel and residential tower at 123 Washington St.

In July, the Moinian Group, developers of the W New York Downtown Hotel and Residences, expect to finish construction of its final floors and open the lavish hotel portion of the tower—from the sixth floor to the 22nd—in June.

(It was previously reported that the top floors of the tower would be finished in May, however representatives of the projects's contractor, Tishman Construction, said recently that the final build-out of the remaining floors was at least two months behind schedule.)

But there is no celebration in the works for the opening of the 217-room luxury hotel, with its attached restaurant and three cocktail lounges. Not with the remains of the Deutsche Bank building still looming from across the street.

“It’s frustrating in the sense that [the Deutsche Bank] was never supposed to be there when we started construction,” said assistant project manager Daniel Huster. “We expected it to be gone.”

Seven years after the building was rendered uninhabitable during the 9/11 attacks—and now years behind schedule—crews continue to clean and dismantle what remains of the Deutsche Bank building. The Moinian tower was only at the foundation level in August, 2007, when a fire at the Deutsche Bank building claimed the lives of two firefighters and put the decontamination and deconstruction of the building on hold for five months. The building is now expected to be down this fall.

Standing on the tower’s unfinished fifth-floor terrace that will become an outdoor bar and lounge area, Daniel Huster, the Moinian Group’s assistant project manager, winced at the thought of hotel guests sipping martinis and taking in the unsightly view.

carl glassman / the tribeca trib

The 58-story W tower is built up to the 45th floor. Developers say it will not fully open until after the former bank tower at 130 Liberty St., left, is demolished.

“Imagine standing at the bar with a drink in your hand, you turn around and that building is the first thing you see,” Huster said as he took a Trib reporter and photographer on a tour of the site. “It’s a pretty unpleasant thought.”

He paused. “This will be a great space once that building is down.”

At last check, crews had finished cleaning the building down to the third floor, and had removed its façade from floors 13-26. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, owner of the Deutsche building, now projects that the demolition will be finished in October—months after the deluxe hotel is scheduled to open.

“As long as that eyesore is still up, it’s going to cause a nuisance,” said Elad Dror, director of residential sales for the Moinian Group, whose challenge has been selling $1.2-million- to $2.5 million condos, many of which overlooks the shrouded former Deutsche tower. While it is not likely to delay—just dampen—the hotel’s opening date, Dror said the company would probably wait until after the Deutsche building is all gone before it begins inviting residential buyers to move in.

“I’m starting to get calls from buyers wondering when they can move in,” he said. “I can’t say when because we don’t know when the Deutsche building is coming down.”

According to Dror, about half of the 223 residential apartments above the hotel floors have been sold. Only apartments on floors 23–26 look directly at the Deutsche building. Still, Dror said most sales are for apartments with east and  south views, not north towards the Deutsche Bank lot.

“Immediately, a lot of people’s reaction to seeing the [Deutsche] building is ‘What is that?’” Dror said, adding that even many potential buyers already living in the city are unaware that the building is still standing. Despite its hulking presence, Dror said he believes the slower sales of the north-facing units are mostly due to a preference for river views. He declined to say whether the Deutsche building had cost the developer sales.

“People see the completion of that project along with the completion of the World Trade Center as a huge part of their investment,” Dror said. “Most people think that all of the World Trade Center buildings came down years ago, and unfortunately that’s not the case.”