DDG Breaks Ground on 180 East 88th Street

Tribeca-based developer DDG has just started construction on 180 East 88th Street, set to become the tallest tower above 72nd Street.

Excavation and site clearing are underway, and the tower will begin to take shape sometime this fall, according to a spokesman for the developer. The 32-story structure will feature 30-foot-high masonry arches on its top floors and a facade clad in brick imported from Denmark. Ultimately, the building will stand 521 feet tall, towering over most of its neighbors on East 88th between Third and Lexington Avenues.

180 East 88th Street, image from DDG

Its 48 condos will be spread across a whopping 129,266 square feet of residential space, which works out to impressively sized units averaging 2,693 square feet a piece. Average ceiling heights will reach 16 feet, and these will be some of the largest new construction condos in the area.

The ground floor will host 52,000 square feet of commercial space, a small non-profit art gallery, and 36 bike storage spots. The upper floors will have just one or two apartments each, and a penthouse duplex will take up the top two stories.

180 East 88th Street construction, photo via DDG

HTO Architect is the architect of record, but DDG handles the design and construction for all its projects internally.

The bulk of the tower will be set back from the street, and the building’s seven and eight-story base will match the street wall.

The site spans 15,354 square feet and wraps around in an L shape to front Third Avenue and East 88th Street. DDG picked up the two properties at 1556 and 1558 Third Avenue for $28,236,000 in December 2013. By April, they had demolished their previous occupants, two five-story tenements.

The Upper East Side’s generous zoning has made it a hotbed for new high-rise condo towers. The short list includes two 21-story towers planned near the 86th Street stop on the 4/5/6, at 1289 Lexington Avenue and 147 East 86th Street, an Extell-developed condo project in the works on Third Avenue between 94th and 95th Streets, and a glassy development designed by SHoP under construction at 1711 First Avenue.

Since the MTA is working overtime to finish the Second Avenue Subway by late 2016 or early 2017, the construction boom may even accelerate in the next two years.

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