77 Hudson Street and 70 Greene Street, continue to rise in downtown Paulus Hook. The 500 foot residential towers, while sharing a parking deck, are actually being built by two different developers. The eastern tower on Hudson Street is a condominium tower being built by K. Hovnanian homes, a developer better known for McMansions than high rise apartments. 70 Greene Street, the western tower, will house rental apartments, and is being built by Equity Residential.

The 1.3 million square foot development was originally going to be a pair of office towers built by Hartz Mountain. But a slump commercial rents and rising residential real estate prices at the turn of the millennium lead to the change in plans.

The construction of the towers has not been without incident. A worker fell to his death a few months back landing on the top of the parking deck. Before that, a fire in the rental tower slowed construction, consuming two floors and damaging several others. Most recently, OSHA recommended an $877,000 fine for unsafe conditions at the site.

The rental tower from Paulus Hook Park at Washington and Grand Streets.

The Hudson Street retail with the parking garage behind.

The exterior cladding on the north side of the parking garage still needs to be installed.

A wider angle of the north side of the parking garage.

The eastern facade of the condominium tower.

The south side of the tower; the parking garage’s exterior panels are mostly installed.

Along Greene Street, the facade of the rental portion of the tower is mostly brick rather than aqua-marine blue glass. A scaffold has been installed across the street to protect pedestrians from falling debris.

Looking up at the rental tower on Greene Street.

The tower on the left is the condominium tower.

The south side of the Parking Garage