Hudson Square Rising: Last Corner of Undeveloped Manhattan Starts Rezoning Process Monday
By Jhanasobserver August 16, 2012 8:20 pm
reprintsTrinity Church has controlled vast swaths of Lower Manhattan real estate for going on three centuries, since the Queen of England deeded 215-acres to the church in 1773. Much of that property has been sold off, but the church still controls one pocket of land at the mouth of the Holland Tunnel, known affectionately these days thanks to developers and brokers, as Hudson Square.
Over the years, the neighborhood has been remade repeatedly, from farmland to factories to the heart of the city’s printing district. More recently, it has become a hub of media and tech firms—Saatchi and Saatchi, New York magazine, MTV, the New York Genome Center—but the church wants to take things a step further and create a 24/7 live-work neighborhood, like neighboring Soho and Tribeca.
For the past five years, Trinity has been working on a rezoning of 50 acres spread over some 20 off-the-grid blocks—the area often feels remote cut off from the rest of the city as it is by the Holland Tunnel. On Monday, it officially begins the public review process, as the City Planning Commission is expected to certify Trinity’s in-hourse rezoning proposal.
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