Hudson Square Boom

By Hemmy So .... The largest planned development is 255 Hudson St., another Metropolitan Housing Partners undertaking. With the marketing tagline, “Downtown Cool, Enduring Style,” the 11-story, 64-unit building will house a variety of two and three-bedroom apartments, lofts and duplexes. Although Boccini stressed that 255 Hudson St. will not be a “505 Greenwich St. Phase II,” a rendering of the planned building on the firm’s Web site does look similar to 505 Greenwich. Boccini said Metorpolitan would not release the rendering for publication. She did highlight several differences between the sister buildings, including different layouts and luxury amenities (unfortunately for pet owners at 255 Hudson St., the building won’t have a pet spa like 505 Greenwich St.) and a warmer color palette for the common areas. “Every building is unique because [Metropolitan Housing Partners] are not cookie-cutter developers and they take pride in their work,” Boccini said. Though the land has been cleared, actual construction has not yet begun. Boccini said the building should be substantially completed by summer 2006. Developer Andrew Bradfield also plans to construct an 11-story residential condo building, just behind 255 Hudson St. at 22 Renwick St. between Spring and Canal Sts. Currently, corporate mail handler Wall Street Mail currently operates in a small, bright-blue building on that plot. Just south of Hudson Sq., on a triangular plot at 500 Canal St., Fabian Friedland and Jeff Levine plan to build a condo building housing 25-30 units. Because the property is just outside the newly rezoned Hudson Sq. area, the developers had to apply for a B.S.A. variance, which Community Board 1 supported. The building will replace an unimpressive lot consumed by weeds and a couple of small abandoned buildings that previously housed a custom ceramic tile company and car audio installation store. Certainly, the residential development process will take south Hudson Sq. through a metamorphosis, whether bringing unique architectural structures, a different brand of resident or more residential services like supermarkets and drugstores. But most agree that change was inevitable. “As a resident, it would be nice if we could go back and have a nice sleepy neighborhood, but that wasn’t going to be that way forever, it just wasn’t real,” Reck said. “Change is difficult, but the bottom line is that it was coming. It’s better to be involved in the change, and we certainly got this neighborhood involved.” Downtown Express