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Plans Unveiled for Astor Place Office Tower

By Patrick Hedlund

DNAinfo News Editor

EAST VILLAGE — A developer unveiled plans Tuesday for the construction of a gleaming new office building in Astor Place that will begin with the demolition of the current building on site next month.

The new structure — an angular, glass-and-granite office building with retail and educational space located on the lower floors — will take the place of the New York Film Academy's coffee shop and Cooper Union's former engineering building.

The razing of 51 Astor Pl. will begin July 1, with the entire process including construction of the new 12-story tower expected to take 17 months, representatives from Sciame Construction told a crowd gathered at the site Tuesday.

The 430,000-square-foot project comes courtesy of Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, who designed the forthcoming Tower 4 at the World Trade Center site, and developer Edward J. Minskoff Equities, which purchased a 99-year ground lease on the site back in 2007.

The building, expected to be ready sometime in 2013, does not yet have any tenants lined up for the office or retail space, representatives said.

In addition to the structure, the site will feature a public plaza complete with plantings, seating and a sculpture located at the corner of Third Avenue and Astor Place.

Asbestos abatement of the current building will begin next month and last approximately 40 days, officials noted, with a "surgical" floor-by-floor demolition expected to take about 50 days. The building should be fully razed by late August.

The roughly 50 residents at the meeting shared a collective gasp when told that crews expected to work between the hours of 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays — something they worried would greatly disturb the neighborhood.

"A lot of people live around here, and we don't get to sleep for two years," rued one man in the audience.

At one point, someone even threatened a lawsuit after hearing about the city-set work hours and the possibility of additional weekend work.

"This neighborhood is a very litigious neighborhood," said the man. "I think that you should take that into consideration."

Officials promised that the surrounding blocks, especially heavily residential East 9th Street, would not suffer any ill effects from construction, after some expressed concern about trucks lining the streets and dust filling the air during demolition.

Representative assured the crowd that the project's "staging" area would be confined to the actual site, and that the demolition would be self-contained to prevent dust or other particles from reaching the surrounding buildings.

Officials reminded the crowd that the design of the building was determined by the community board, Department of City Planning and Cooper Union back in 2002, offering cold comfort to one East 9th Street resident who complained of having to look at a "hideous industrial façade."

Concerns were also raised about the spread of rodents during demolition and construction, as well as the flood of new commuters arriving and departing from the Astor Place subway station once the offices are filled.

Community Board 3 will discuss the project's plaza design next month, at which time the public will be allowed to comment.