“Canal Tower” Rising at 86 Canal Street

There’s most certainly a pulse; that dormant mess of land at the southwest corner of Canal and Eldridge is alive. Earthmoving had been a constant around here for months, and the fruits of those long-delayed efforts finally reached eye level rather recently. 86 Canal Street – dubbed “Canal Tower” – breached the plywood threshhold and is nearly two stories in height.

According to approved plans filed with the DOB, this so-called Canal Tower will top out at twelve floors, and boast 50,125 square-feet of new Chinatown real estate. Of that floor-area, nearly half is split between residential and commercial (89 dwelling units), with a paltry 900 square-feet earmarked for community use. The plywood sign indicates a completion date of December 2013. What’s the over/under?

Anyway, controversial landlord Baruch Singer acquired 86 Canal in 2007 for $20.5 million, and promptly razed the five-floored tenement. His grand plan was a sixteen-story nightmare. Thanks to a terrible economic downturn, those dreams were not realized, and he sold the property (at a loss) to Queens-based Wing Fung Realty Group in 2010 for $16.5 million.