"If you had said twenty years ago, 'you know the meatpacking district is going to be a cultural hub,'" Council Speaker Christine Quinn said in a short documentary on the neighborhood, "People would have looked at you like you were in some sort of beef-induced overdose haze and you had lost your mind."

Teaming up with the Meatpacking Improvement Association (MIPA), Andre Balasz of the Standard captures the transformation of the neighborhood from being a gritty hub of meatpacking factories to the hub of high-end hotels, retail stores, and night clubs that it is today, Curbed noticed.

The seven-minute video features several neighborhood residents that were quintessential in shaping the history, including Florent owner, Florent Morrelet, the Meilman family, and David Rabin of Double Seven.

Hogs and Heifers' owner, Michelle Dell, also contributed, noting that she'll "never forget when the neighborhood started to transition. When the women started rolling around in their Jimmy Choo and their Guccis in this kind of slipping and sliding in the streets that were covered in this sort of thin film of meat sludge."

mewing@observer.com

Developer Stephen Touhey told The Observer that the hotel, at Washington Street and West 13th Street, can be built as-of-right under current zoning regulations. It's Mr. Touhey's latest effort to revive an original plan that called for a 450-foot-tall luxury condominium tower designed by Mr. Nouvel on the site.

In March, after battling fierce opposition from neighborhood groups, Mr. Touhey pulled his application from the city's Board of Standards and Appeals before it had ruled on the legality of his proposal. With his current hotel project, Mr. Touhey said he expects to secure all necessary building permits and financing by early 2004.

But neighborhood activists say they haven't fired all the arrows in their quiver just yet.

"We intend to fight it any way we can," said Andrew Berman, the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "A 450-foot tower is a wholly inappropriate exploitation of a newly designated historic district. Everything around is low-rise development, and Mr. Touhey clearly intends to exploit these unobstructed views."

After withdrawing his bid to build a luxury apartment building, Mr. Touhey reconfigured the $120 million project as a high-end boutique hotel that will house 115 guest rooms, an Asian-style spa, two restaurants and 30,000 square feet of retail space. Mr. Touhey plans to build the hotel as-of-right, and is currently in contract negotiations with two hospitality operators to manage the property.

He said its sculpted exterior by the renowned French architect Jean Nouvel, who designed the acclaimed L'Institut du Monde Arab and the Foundation Cartier in Paris, would be an asset to the fast-developing lower West Side of Manhattan, and that his tower is in proportion to the 32,000-square-foot lot on which he intends to build.

But activists who have been fighting Mr. Touhey on his project remained opposed to high-profile architecture that is out of context with the surrounding streetscape.

"No matter how famous an architect they bring in to do the façade of the building, it will be overwhelming," said Sean Sweeney, the chairman of Community Board 2's landmarks committee, which has criticized the scale of the project.

The activists recently won some support from the city for keeping part of the meatpacking district a low-rise commercial and retail district. The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the area-bounded by a stretch of West 15th Street on the north, Horatio Street on the south, West Street on the west, and Hudson Street on the east-an official historic district on Sept. 9. On Oct. 8, the City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing before ruling on the designation. The City Council will issue the final ruling sometime in January.

Mr. Touhey's site is not technically affected by the ruling, as it sits just outside the proposed district. But neighborhood activists who originally sought to include Mr. Touhey's site in the designated area hope they can use the spirit of the new designation to their advantage as they continue to fight Mr. Touhey over his plans.

"This points to why we originally urged that these blocks on Washington Street be included in the landmarked district," said Mr. Berman. "It would be shameful if this designation was followed by development that would have such a destructive impact."

Boomtown

Things are moving fast in the meatpacking district, where residential desirability has increased now that fashion boutiques, high-end eateries and dimly lit lounges have been edging out the old meatpacking businesses that, especially on hot summer nights, made the area a less-than-perfect place to call home, even for New York's famously adventurous young buyers.

Indeed, while Mr. Touhey's hotel is the result of his defeated effort to build a luxury condominium in the neighborhood, the market forces that drove him to propose the tower are only growing stronger. Local brokers say the cobblestone quadrangle-with Keith McNally's boisterous bistro Pastis at its lively center-has been the one bright spot in a downtown real-estate market still reeling from the post–Sept. 11 downturn. While rents in Soho and Tribeca have declined 30 to 35 percent since Sept. 11 and registered vacancies are topping 30 percent, rents in the meatpacking district rose more than 50 percent during the same period.

Commercial brokers remain bullish on the neighborhood. They see a wave of prospective tenants eager to boost their fashion cred by locating next to designer showrooms, including Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Jeffrey, Carlos Miele and Diane von Furstenberg the Shop. In the past year, fashion businesses have continued to explore real estate in the neighborhood. In June, Bliss began scouting for a 5,000-square-foot spa on 14th Street, while both L.A. Eyeworks and designer shoemaker Charles David have been looking for 2,500-square-foot spaces on 14th Street.

"As long as the landmarks committee allows for new construction, the neighborhood will remain economically strong," Bruce Sinder, the president of Sinvin Realty in Tribeca, said. Mr. Sinder brokered some of the biggest deals in the neighborhood, including Vitra's 10,000-square-foot furniture showroom at 29 Ninth Avenue, Soho House's 40,000-square-foot property at 29-35 Ninth Avenue, and the 50,000-square-foot headquarters of Estée Lauder salon subsidiary Bumble and Bumble on 415 West 13th Street.

"In terms of rent, the meatpacking [district] is where Soho was in the early 1990's," said Richard Hodos, the president of Madison HGCD, describing the rise in commercial rents since 2000. He cited Jeffrey, the pioneering haute department store that opened on 14th Street in 2000, when rents commanded approximately $18 per square foot. Today, rents have jumped to more than $100 per square foot.

It took more than a decade in Soho for rents to go up on a similar trajectory until rents peaked in early 2000 at $500 per square foot for street-level retail along West Broadway.

"With the Landmarks ruling, I think it will drive even more people to the neighborhood," said Faith Hope Consolo, the vice chairwoman of Garrick-Aug Worldwide, who has brokered deals in the area, including the 4,500-square-foot Carlos Miele boutique and the 5,000-square-foot Sally Hershberger Salon, both on West 14th Street. "Labeling the meatpacking as an official district has brought even more focus to an already hot area. But the neighborhood needs to be rounded out. It can't be just Jeffrey and Pastis. We could see some bigger commercial brands in the area over the coming year."

Mr. Touhey won't be alone in the neighborhood. Michael Achenbaum, the developer of the Gansevoort-a $60 million, 13-story, 187-room hotel currently in the final stages of construction-was able to complete his project before the Landmarks ruling passed; he said that preserving the low-rise streetscape will bolster the long-term economic value of the neighborhood.

"We look at the [Landmarks] ruling as a positive," he said. "We expect to attract a lot of guests in the media business and those who want to stay in an exciting environment."

The hotel, at the corner of 13th Street and Ninth Avenue, is scheduled to open in January.

The hotel boom in the area has as much to do with the loud nightclubs and restaurants that have begun to populate the district as the influx of quality designers, attracting guests eager to experience the district's mix of nightlife and shopping. In addition to Mr. Touhey's project and the Gansevoort, witness the 125-room ocean-liner-themed Maritime Hotel (replete with porthole windows), which opened its doors just north of the district on 363 West 16th Street in June, and Soho House, the private members' club and 24-room hotel at 29-35 Ninth Avenue, which opened to a deluge of media coverage-and a cameo on Sex and the City -in May.

Natural Pressure

Unlike Mr. Achenbaum, most building owners see the Landmarks ruling as an artificial cap on the neighborhood's recent explosion. The district's largest property owners have retained legal counsel to fight the city's designation before it goes to the City Council for final approval early next year.

"We have retained an attorney to explore our options," said Michael Romanoff, the president of Romanoff Equities. "We feel the buildings are of a nature that are not landmarkable. The locals want all the buildings to stay old. It's out of touch with reality. We want the property to be put to the best use to meet the present demand."

The Meilman Family, one of the largest property owners in the district with six buildings, including a third of the frontage on 14th Street that falls within the district, has also retained counsel to overturn the ruling-which the company said has undermined the value of its real-estate holdings in the neighborhood, which they have retained for the past 70 years.

"What the Landmarks ruling does is freeze any potential development. Currently, we are 40 percent under-built," said Clifford Meilman, the manager of Meilman properties. "Fourteenth Street is a major thoroughfare with subways and buses-it's prime for better use. Now it has basically been frozen. Architecturally and stylistically, it does not fall in line with what [Landmarks] were trying to accomplish. It doesn't make any sense."

But the notion of "better uses" for the neighborhood riles some long-standing businesses in the district. Since 1974, when the city sought to consolidate the wholesale meat and vegetable markets in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, 47 independent food wholesalers have relocated to the sprawling 60-acre, 700,000-square-foot complex, making it the largest wholesale food-distribution center in the world. Meatpacking-business owners in the district fear they have a limited future in Manhattan, where property owners are raising rents to capitalize on the growing demand from boutique and club owners.

They see Mr. Touhey's hotel as the latest development fueling market pressures that will ultimately bring residential development to the district, which they fiercely oppose. Local activists say that preserving the neighborhood requires it to remain a viable place for the meatpackers to do business-an economic base whose nocturnal business activities are inconsistent with residential development.

There, at least, Mr. Touhey agrees with them.

"The meatpacking district has a different look and feel than it did five years ago," Mr. Touhey said. "Only two years ago, there were only two boutiques here. Now, there are upwards of 25. Our hotel will bring in people. All of these factors are putting pressure on the neighborhood to change. Rising rents, cleanliness and better maintenance of buildings reflect that. It's a natural pressure."

Rising rents have already forced out some of the oldest meat businesses in the neighborhood.

"Rents are going up-that's a fact," said Bob Wilkins, the president of Lamb Unlimited, a supplier of choice cuts to Citarella and Peter Luger. "If your operation works under those conditions, great. If not, you have to go find another location. When any cost goes up, that bothers me."

"It's vital to the future of this neighborhood that it stays commercial and the meatpackers remain," Michelle Dell, the owner of the Hogs and Heifers Saloon at 859 Washington Street, said. "How many Gaps do you need in New York? They price everyone else out of the neighborhood. How can anyone else compete?"

Ms. Consolo said the loss of meat businesses was just a natural byproduct of the realities of Manhattan's hypercompetitive commercial real-estate market.

"This city is always changing, and the meatpackers' days are numbered," Ms. Consolo said. "They'll have to go someplace else. They don't need to be sitting on prime real estate."

Ms. Dell sees this shift all too clearly.

"You start selling co-ops in this neighborhood for $5 million," Ms. Dell said, "and do you think people will put up with meat trucks backing up at 3 o'clock in the morning, slippery sidewalks, and the smell of rotten beef and blood?"

Starting with the arrival of high-end retailer Jeffrey two years ago, the neighborhood has quickly filled up with hip boutiques (Bodum, Zoo York and, reported to be coming soon, Alexander McQueen), furniture stores (Herman Miller, Vitra) and more restaurants (Fressen, Le Gans and Markt). But development, which had been restricted to the outskirts of the meatpacking district (Julianne Moore's apartment at 345 West 13th Street is on the market for $2.2 million), is now inching into the heart of it.

Developer Stephen Touhey is seeking the city's permission to build a 32-story condo designed by French architect Jean Nouvel at 828 Washington Street, between Little West 12th and 13th Streets. One block east, a partnership of four investors bought 29 Ninth Avenue earlier this year for $8.1 million, and they're renovating the building for about $7 million to attract high-end tenants and maybe even a hotelier. And Washington-based Starwood Urban Investments paid $10.2 million in July for a five-story brick building at 430 Washington Street; one tenant said his rent quadrupled under the new owners.

Longtime meat-market proprietors like restaurateur Florent Morellet and Hogs and Heifers owner Michelle Dell are campaigning against residential development in favor of retaining the commercial-only zoning in order to preserve the nightclubs and the meatpacking businesses of the neighborhood. "Within a year, we'd have to close," said Ms. Dell, who questioned how long $2 million condo owners would put up with a late-night biker bar. "This neighborhood opened up its arms to nightlife," Ms. Dell said. "The city encouraged nightlife here. Now where is the nightlife supposed to go?"

But many of the major meatpacking businesses and several nightclubs have already been displaced because of rising rents and lucrative offers to sell. Jerry Romanoff, who sold his buildings to Mr. Touhey and moved his operation to New Jersey, said, "There are too many problems for the meatpackers" in the meatpacking district. "There are no loading docks, no parking and too many food-safety issues-it's only a matter of time before it gets shut down."

On Nov. 20, Mr. Touhey's plans were discussed by the Board of Standards of Appeals, which rules on deviations from zoning and building codes. Mr. Touhey had proposed a trapezoidal tower with unimpeded views of the river and two smaller, wedge-shaped structures. The buildings-designed to be connected by elevated, glass-enclosed bridges-would have corrugated metal exteriors and special enormous windows, to be installed by foreign craftsmen. Mr. Touhey would also like to convert an 18,000-square-foot section of the High Line, the abandoned elevated railline, into a public park-potentially saving it from demolition at the hands of the Chelsea Property Owners' Association. And he is also offering to build another public park on the remaining 22,000-square-foot portion of that block of Washington Street, which is owned by the New York State Department of Transportation. The board asked Mr. Touhey to come back on Jan. 11 with more details

Addressing the neighborhood's concerns, Mr. Touhey, a managing partner at the Landmark Development company, said, "We are marketing to a certain kind of customer who likes the grit and nightlife-people who like the meat market." He estimated that up to 70 residents will occupy the 34 condominiums he would sell for $2.5 million to $3 million a piece.

The other two projects capitalize on the artistic and fashion backgrounds of many of the current commercial tenants, including the Boss modeling agency; public-relations firms KCD and KRT; designer John Bartlett; photo studios Industria and Milk; fashion photographers Christian Witkin, Albert Watson, Steven Klein and Dahlen; caterer Serena Bass; florist Robert Isabell; and artists Pat Steir and Matthew Barney.

Twenty-nine Ninth Avenue will get a face lift, as well as exposed brick walls, new mechanicals, a refurbished lobby and new passenger elevators in its interior. Sinvin Realty, which is marketing the 72,000 square feet, reportedly has two tenants lined up: Jean-Georges Vongerichten has signed a lease for 15,000 feet of ground and basement space for an Asian restaurant slated to open next year, and ultra-hip Vitra, a Swiss design company that updates the midcentury modern aesthetic in home furnishings, signed a lease in July for 1,800 square feet of retail space on the building's ground floor and 10,300 square feet on its second floor for showroom offices. They are also discussing using the rest of the space for a boutique hotel.

And in the Starwood building, where Hogs and Heifers is located, Michelle Dell said that rents have gone up "drastically." A print shop, a carpenter and a meatpacking business have also left the building. Since then, the advertising firm Ground Zero has been in negotiations to lease all four upper floors, and Ms. Dell is considering opening a bike-wear boutique on the ground floor.

The 50 or so meatpacking businesses that remain in the district are small-like Lamb Unlimited, which exclusively supplies lamb to Peter Luger in Williamsburg and Citarella-and claim they can't easily relocate to New Jersey or the city's new Hunts Point Meat Market in the South Bronx. But they, too, know that it's just a matter of time before Prada and prime beef lock horns once and for all.

Fran Migliore, whose family-run R&W Provision Co. has been operating in the meat market for 49 years, said about the people headed to the neighborhood: "They'll complain about the noise, the pollution and the guys in the street who use the F-word."

Upper East Side

180 East 79th Street Two-bed, two-bath, 1,400-square-foot co-op. Asking: $1.2 million. Selling: $1.125 million. Charges: $1,526; 42 percent tax-deductible. Time on the market: five weeks. STORMING MANHATTAN A couple from Omaha gave themselves exactly one weekend to buy an apartment in Manhattan. That Friday, they called broker Pierrette Hogan of MLBKaye International Realty, who'd been selling this two-bedroom apartment in a prewar co-op on 79th Street and Third Avenue for about a month. They insisted on seeing the place immediately, so Ms. Hogan gave them a tour of this co-op, which has a large, recently renovated kitchen, sunken living room and bedrooms with city views. The couple returned the next morning with some family members to get a second opinion, and the next night they made an offer. The sellers-a couple who were moving to a smaller place in the city-accepted the offer two days later.

400 East 77th Street Three-bed, three-bath, 2,000-square-foot co-op. Asking: $999,000. Selling: $1 million. Charges: $2,100; 60 percent tax-deductible. Time on the market: five months. DOCTOR AND HIS WIFE DISPLACE TWO FAMILIES A cardiologist and his wife, who works in the fashion industry, decided it was time to move out of their rental on the Upper East Side. "They wanted space," said Insignia Douglas Elliman broker Elaine Tross. What they got were two apartments on the 11th floor of this postwar co-op on 77th Street and First Avenue that they'll turn into one three-bedroom apartment with a den, living room and dining room. The two apartments did not initially come on the market together. The first was a two-bedroom, two-bath place that was owned by a couple with two children. Ms. Tross suggested that their neighbors, a couple with a baby, sell their apartment as well. "They said, 'If you can do it, do it,'" she said. And she did. The combination was a particularly easy one, as the two apartments can be connected through the living rooms.

Gramercy Park

32 Gramercy Park South One-bed, one-bath, 450-square-foot co-op. Asking; $309,000. Selling: $300,000. Charges: $668; 50 percent tax-deductible. Time on the market: one month. SHRINK BUYS 450 SQUARE FEET WHOLE-EVEN THE DUSTBUSTER How do you turn a cookie-cutter studio into something livable? Ask Michelle Birnbach, an interior designer who works at RDD Associates in Granite Springs, N.Y. About six months ago, she and her husband, who live in Westchester, bought this place to use as a pied-à-terre . At the time, it looked like an ugly dorm room, but Ms. Birnbach had vision-and as her broker, Jessica Huff of Bellmarc Realty, said, "She loves a project." Ms. Birnbach repainted the harsh white walls with a dark beige, got rid of the metal kitchen cabinets for off-white wood ones, and redid the bathrooms using black slate with flecks of gold. But perhaps most importantly, she created a bedroom by putting up a wall of French doors 10 feet from one wall. "It was wonderful because when you sat in the living room, all the light would come in through the French doors, and you could lie in bed and look out at the Empire State Building," said Ms. Birnbach. "I basically went nuts." She even put out a bowl of Nips candies on the coffee table because the wrappers matched the colors of the apartment. When Ms. Birnbach decided to sell the place, a psychologist from Boston was the first person through the door. She was impressed and made an offer on the vamped-up apartment right away-including all the furnishings and linens. "She even asked for the Dustbuster," said Ms. Birnbach.

Battery Park City

Puffy and Russell Simmons Decide Not To Do Business

Two years after putting his 12-story building at 813 Park Avenue on the market for $15 million (it's currently priced at $16 million) and beginning a search of luxury apartments throughout the city, Sean (Puffy) Combs hasn't moved an inch.

Last August, it seemed that Mr. Combs had found a new place to call home when he signed a contract to buy a penthouse duplex at a small condo building on Liberty Street in Battery Park City from his friend and fellow hip-hop impresario, Russell Simmons. The apartment, which Mr. Simmons purchased in 1998, is 7,070 square feet and has 2,813 square feet of terrace space.

But while Mr. Combs and Mr. Simmons waited for the condo board to approve the sale, the World Trade Center was demolished, and the building-which is only about 100 yards away from ground zero-is currently on the city's list of unsound structures.

Mr. Simmons told The Observer that he returned Mr. Combs' deposit. "It's just a pile of bricks," he said sadly about his former home. "Well, not bricks, but it might as well be."

While downtown brokers were surprised that Puffy would be let off the hook so easily-"He signed to purchase, and it isn't so easy to back out," said one broker-they said he's now back in the market, though not necessarily to buy.

Said another broker: "He is definitely looking for short-term rentals."