HUDSON SQUARE — A real estate company looking to build a 30-story housing tower on Spring Street says it will tear up a parking lot and create paradise if the city makes zoning changes that would allow the construction of a building and park.
Dominick Street Park and a 320-foot-tall building would take the place of the parking lot Edison Properties owns between Dominick and Spring streets and Varick and Hudson streets, just north of the Holland Tunnel, company vice president Anthony Borelli said in an interview.
"One of the primary goals of our plan is to encourage the creation of a vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood," he said.
Edison's plans are dependent on city approval of a zoning request by Trinity Real Estate that would allow residential development in Hudson Square — the 18-block area roughly bounded by West Houston Street, Sixth Avenue, Canal Street and Greenwich Street.
Creation of the park would also require a change to Trinity's plans, which currently call for all construction to meet the street line, according to a draft scope of work.
A spokesman for Trinity declined to comment on the project.
Designs for the 13,700-square-foot, mid-block park envisioned by Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners show new trees and plantings, moveable cafe tables and chairs, and a fire department-themed children's play area with water features, in a nod to the park's neighbor the New York City Fire Museum.
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation president Andrew Berman said Hudson Square will need more parks as it gains residents, but he questioned the wisdom of allowing tall buildings to be built in exchange for them.
"It would seem that there are many more good opportunities in and around Hudson Square to increase the amount and quality of publicly owned public space, rather than trade slivers of privately owned space for ever taller high-rises around them," he said.
Community Board 2 chair Brad Hoylman said he thought it was "positive" that a player in the Hudson Square rezoning was considering opportunities for new parks.
"CB2 feels strongly that rezoning Hudson Square to include residential use creates a need for new open space," he said, adding that the board does not have an official position yet on Edison's proposal.
The building Edison is planning for 270 Spring St. would have 230 units, Borelli said. Forty-six of these units would be affordable housing at rates determined under the city's Inclusionary Housing Program guidelines. The remaining units would rent at market rate.
The building would have ground floor retail space on Spring Street and an underground parking garage, Borelli said.
Hudson Square's current zoning allows manufacturing and commercial uses of land, but prohibits residential development and sets no height limits on buildings.
Trinity, which owns six million square feet in 18 Hudson Square buildings, will request that the city allow residential building and conversions and limit building heights, according to its draft scope of work.
City Planning is expected to certify the zoning this spring, which will launch a seven-month-long public review process.
