Finally — a cleaning product designed specifically for ivory towers!
A developer unveiled plans for the third and final part of Downtown’s massive City Point residential and retail complex on Wednesday night — a bright white, 57-story high-rise that could come with its own scrubbing device to ensure it stays sparkling in the city smog.
“Something that has been discussed is a custom-designed squeegee that actually washes the facades in the grooves itself,” said KPF Architects’ Bruce Fisher. “We don’t want the building to be filthy looking.”
The architect and developer Extell revealed the snow-colored residential skyscraper at a Community Board 2 land-use committee meeting on Jan. 20, giving local residents their first glimpse of the 692-foot, 500-unit building that will eventually join two other apartment towers and a mall in the space between Fulton and Willoughby streets.
But locals just wanted to know one thing — how do they expect to keep it clean?
“It’s going to start out as a white facade, but it’s never going to end up there,” said Salvatore LaRosa.
Fisher assured the advisory panel that he is looking into special materials and contraptions to maintain the flawless facade, and a honcho with Extell — which recently opened a building in Manhattan with a notorious “poor door” for lower-income residents — said it has plenty of experience keeping luxe properties unsullied.
“We have several buildings throughout New York where we’ve designed special cleaning mechanisms,” said the company’s vice president Tony Mannarino.
Extell, which bought the site at Willoughby Street between Albee Square West and Flatbush Avenue Extension for $115.5 million last year, is yet to decide whether the building’s units will be condominiums or rentals, but Mannarino said it is leaning towards condos.
Construction is slated to begin next year and wrap up by 2019.
