Tag Archives: riverhouse

Tyra Banks Bangs It Up in Construction

Model Tyra Banks Angers Neighbors With Construction

Real Estate, , ,
Tyra Banks Bangs It Up in Construction
Tyra Banks Bangs It Up in Construction

Her neighbors don’t hate model and talk show/reality show Tyra Banks because she’s beautiful. They hate her because she is being an inconsiderate neighbor. Banks recently angered her neighbors-to-be thanks to construction work being done on her new abode at the luxurious Riverhouse in Battery Park City. According to The New York Post’s Page Six, Banks is merging four apartments into one huge duplex unit and the construction project has lasted six months beyond the intended schedule and neighbors have been calling the police over the matter.

Apparently, paint fumes are annoying other residents and the incessant drilling is making for some serious noise pollution indoors.

A rep for the Riverhouse said that Banks’ unit is “near completion.” Nothing like pissing off the locals before you move in.

How should Tyra Banks appease her angry neighbors for her overdue, noisy construction?

Riverhouse

Condo Owners Seeing Red Over Building’s Alleged Lack of Green

Real Estate, ,
Riverhouse
Riverhouse tenants want a double serving of green.

Condo owners in Battery Park City’s high-end Riverhouse building have filed a lawsuit seeking a whole lot of green — $1.5 million worth, to be exact — because they contend their supposedly eco-friendly building isn’t environmentally friendly enough.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Steven Gidumal and Allison Keeley — who paid $4.2 million for their three-bedroom, three-bath condo in 2008 –  filed a complaint with the New York Supreme Court in May, claiming that the building was “marketed as being on the cutting edge of ‘green’ technology” but failed to deliver an acceptably eco-friendly air filtration system and heating unit.

The Sheldrake Organization, which oversaw development of the building until it was ousted in a power struggle in January, and Centurion Real Estate Partners, which currently controls Riverhouse, are named as defendants in the suit. However, Michael Abreu, a Sheldrake executive vice president, claims the suit is groundless. The “complaint about the lack of heat has no bearing on the green and sustainable features of the building,” he says.

Despite the lawsuit, Riverhouse is still seeking to obtain LEED gold certification, the second highest of four levels of eco-friendliness, from the U.S. Green Building Council. Winning such a stamp of approval requires meeting an array of environmental standards, including energy efficiency and air quality, and would certainly make the building more attractive to buyers. Not that it needs much help in that department: Leonard DiCaprio and Tyra Banks are already tenants.

A Library Dreams Are Made Of… Right Here in BPC

News, , ,
NYPL's first LEED certified library in BPC
Battery Park City welcomes it's first NYPL

It used to be that a person who was both Battery Park City resident and a New York Library Patron meant to be an person without a country — or a home library. For years, NYPL card holders who lived in BPC would have to travel between the New Amsterdam location, Hudson Park Branch or even the Midtown Branch location on 42nd street. (We kind of get used to that living down here don’t we?)

All of that craziness officially ended today with the opening of Battery Park’s very own New York Public Library. The opening of the NYPL’s 88th location also marked it’s greenest endeavor yet, living up to the neighborhoods mantra of being the “greenest neighborhood in the country” the library is the first green LEED certified branch in all of Manhattan.

The library boasts 10,000 square feet of 24,000 items, including public use computers, reading areas and of course stacks of books. The library cost $6.7 million dollars and was partially subsidized by Goldman Sachs, our new rich benevolent corporate neighbor. The money went into ensuring that the library could provide low-energy heating, air conditioning and lighting — even using recyclable materials for furnishings and carpeting.

As budget cuts have been affecting the use of most public resources — our brand new library is also at the mercy of cuts. Although the library is currently open for use 6 days a week — it will soon reducing services to 3-4 days a week, cutting back on purchases to increase the collection as well as staff layoffs.

Either way for NYPL fans, 3-4 days of use of this beautiful facility is still better than not seeing this day come at all.

Share your sentiments or kudos for our new library in our comments! 🙂