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Building Expectations

By Matt Chaban 1/17/12 5:20pm

Building Expectations

6 Photos

757 Third

Aby Rosen’s Hidden Jewel

From the moment you walk through the doors of 757 Third Avenue, you know the building is different from the average, anonymous East Side office tower.

One of the lesser works of the monolithic Emery Roth & Sons—they of GM and Look and Pan Am buildings fame—757 Third is the typical wedding-cake office building. A banded obsidian glass curtain wall with those I-beam mullions, it is the sentinel we’ve seen before, cast ever so slightly anew in a thousand business districts the world over. Seagrams lite with a splash of Chase Manhattan.

That is why walking into, or really out of, 757 Third is such a dramatic experience. The 28-story building may have the nicest revolving doors in the entire city. Set into two curving, scythelike glass panels, the building’s egress does not really have an edge, and so when stepping out onto the street through those spinning doors, it is as though the building suddenly disappears. You have left the warm confines of this sleek building and are back on the cold New York City street. You might even stop to gasp at the trick if the door were not coming up behind you, about to deliver a smack in the toosh. Read More

By Pamela Engel 8/02/11 12:13pm

Building Expectations

This way!

More on That Harlem Mini-Development Boom

Harlem might seeing another renaissance if reports by Ariel Property Advisors efforts are any indication; the residential and retail markets appear to be on the upswing.

We’ve noticed a few new condo developments in Harlem cropping up that are aiming at those who want the feel of a luxury building without the hefty cost, and the city’s Economic Development Corporation recently announced the revamping of two run-down commercial properties on West 125th Street. And this renewed developer interest could help alleviate the “housing supply contraints” in the area and boost residential rents and sales.

Other indicators of a strengthening market, per a new report from Ariel Property, are: Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 7/13/11 1:25pm

Building Expectations

116john

How 116 John Street Became an Apartment Building

Since 2002, Stuart Gross has served as executive managing director at Eastern Consolidated, where he has specialized in complicated restructuring deals and investment sales transactions. Mr. Gross, 58, spoke to The Observer about 116 John Street, until recently one of few remaining office building on a street once teeming with commercial assets. Now, the building is being converted to rental apartments and leasing is expected to begin early next year.

What was the motivation behind converting 116 John Street into a residential building?

Mr. Gross: That was a complicated form of ownership that required some sort of financial engineering. But, as always, that tail should not wag the dog. The real issue had been, what’s the property worth and what’s its highest and best use, and who’s the best person to exploit that use. Read More

By Pamela Engel 7/08/11 2:11pm

Building Expectations

41 Bond Street. Photo: The Wall Street Journal

So Very Pre-Lehman: At 41 Bond, $2,500 a Foot

Manhattan’s housing market hasn’t fully recovered just yet, but you wouldn’t know it if you checked out 41 Bond downtown.

The luxury condo building between Lafayette and Bowery streets nearly sold out in only about a month’s time, and units are priced north of $2,500 per square foot for just the lower-level apartments, according to The Wall Street Journal. Could it be those foreign buyers looking for pieds-a-terre near the financial district? Read More

By Tom Acitelli 7/05/11 7:04pm

Building Expectations

The Chelsea.

Joseph Chetrit, the Most Mysterious Big Shot in New York Real Estate

One summer Friday in 1994, Ron Cohen, one of the top commercial brokers in New York City, picked up the phone in his office at the old Insignia/ESG, a precursor to today’s mega-brokerage CB Richard Ellis. A man named Joseph Chetrit was cold-calling him about a 16-story office building at 19 West 44th Street that Mr. Cohen’s client was selling.

“Sorry,” Mr. Cohen said. “We don’t work with people we don’t know.”

He hung up and went back to work.

Minutes later, three men walked into Mr. Cohen’s office. They were Joseph Chetrit, his father Simon, and his brother Jacques.

“Well, now you know us,” Joseph said matter-of-factly. Read More