The amateurs are out and the pros are in at 219 Hudson Street in Manhattan. Prolific Brooklyn construction boss Joel Braver filed construction plans for a 14-unit residential building at the site previously controlled by four legends of European football: Zinedine Zidane, Christian Vieri, Paolo Maldini and Andriy Shevchenko, along with two other investors.
Braver’s construction plans are highly suggestive of condos, given the building’s total projected residential square-footage of 22,000 feet and its Soho location. Filings show units will have balconies or terraces and a community facility of some sort will be incorporated into the building.
Braver, who acquired the site in 2015 for $13.2 million, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As for the soccer legends, fallout from their scrapped plans dragged on in the court room through late 2016. A Manhattan Supreme Court judge dismissed a suit brought against them by partner Avihu Gerafi, who alleged the former players had failed to follow through on funding commitments in exchange for transferring 219 Hudson Street into a new partnership set on bringing a hotel to the site. The judge decided, however, that Gerafi’s claims were “completely belied by documentary evidence.”
In Williamsburg, Braver is at work on the 45-unit 46 Cook Street. Braver’s construction company, Express Builders JB, ranked 18th in The Real Deal’s 2017 ranking of the most active general contractors in the city, with more than 2 million square feet of space under construction.