Flatiron Building to be converted into luxury apartments
Brodsky is buying a stake in the 120-year-old landmark and will oversee the conversion.
The Flatiron Building, which was the tallest office building in New York City when it opened 120 years ago, will be reborn as a luxury residential tower.
The partnership that owns the iconic tower at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, including GFP Real Estate, Sorgente Group and ABS Partners, revealed this week that Brodsky’s organization has taken a stake in the building and will oversee its transformation.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
According to a report in The New York TimesThe 22-storey tower will be converted into approximately 40 residential units, with retail space on the ground floor. The owners have not specified whether the units will be for rent or apartments, but it is likely that the apartments will be dedicated to the historic setting.
The owners said it will take about three years to transform the Flatiron Building. Project plans will require approval from the City Planning Department and the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Dean Amro, director of the Brodsky Foundation, told the New York Times that the project reflects “our confidence that New York will come back stronger than before.”
Although the Flatiron Building’s triangular wedge shape will make conversion a challenge, Arnault said the building’s many windows will make conversion into an apartment building easier than most office buildings, the newspaper reported.
The Flatiron Building was the focus of not one but two court-ordered subdivision sales earlier this year to settle a dispute between GFP’s Jeff Gural and Nathan Silverstein, who had a 25% interest in the Triangle building.
The epic battle between Goral and Silverstein began during the pandemic over the cost of a renovation whose top priority was eliminating a glaring safety hazard in the century-old icon: a single staircase that was the only exit in case of fire.
“It was legal but it was very unsafe and it worried us. It had a sprinkler system, but there was only one staircase and we needed to put in two exit ways. Converting the elevators and making sure construction workers weren’t trapped in them was a time-consuming project,” Gural said. long”.
The cost of renovating the landmark — which required the restoration of a Beaux Arts-style facade that must match the original facade in every detail — has ballooned to more than $100 million as costs rise amid rising inflation.
“(Silverstein) didn’t understand why it would cost so much to renovate the building. He thought if it was going to cost $100 million, Jeff must be crazy.”
The altercation between Goral and Silverstein became the stuff of New York City folklore in March, when a court-ordered auction was held on the steps of the Old District Courthouse in lower Manhattan to determine the winner of a split sale.
A D.C.-based investor named Jacob Garlick showed up at the auction and outbid Goral and his partners, apparently taking over the building for $190 million — until Garlick took a shot and failed to make the required $19 million deposit.
In the second auction, in May, Goral beat out four other bidders and took the prize of $161 million. Registered bidders (Garlick did not join the party this time) were asked to come to the historic courthouse at 60 Center Street with certified checks for $100,000 made out to the auction referee, attorney Peter Axelrod.
Because the 75% stake in the Flatiron Building that was owned by GFP Real Estate and its partners could be used as a stake in the subdivision sale, the partners ended up paying Silverstein $40 million for his 25% stake and assuming full ownership of the building. tower.
