135 East 79th Street.

Limestone and classicism have enjoyed something of a revival in new New York construction over the past few years, perhaps spurred by Robert A.M. Stern's runaway success, 15 Central Park West. But where 15 CPW mixes classic features and materials with clean modernism—Stern's post-modern influences are still visible in the building's design, despite its Candela-like appearance—the Brodsky Organization's 135 East 79th Street, with exteriors and interiors by designer-to-the-starts William Sofield, is all tradition.

It's also attracting what passes for a very traditional clientele in today's frothy, foreigner-fueled condo market—not only domestic buyers, but actual New Yorkers.

Sources tell The Observer that pre-war touches have succeeded in drawing a very local clientele—unlike its modernist ultra-luxe competitors, which market their condos to would-be buyers across the globe, the 17 units in contract have been scooped up almost exclusively by New Yorkers.

"Many foreigners will buy the Midtown location," broker Donna Olshan, of Olshan Realty, who is not associated with the building, told The Observer. "They'll buy the box up in the sky, because where they come from in Europe, they don't get that kind of architecture. Whereas the New Yorker," who will use the building as their primary residence rather than as a pied-à-terre, "is interested in large space, high ceilings and nice finish work."

The developers didn't have to build in a traditional style, as the building is not located in a landmark district, but the 19-story Upper East Side building is echt old fashioned. Residents will be greeted by two 22-foot pear tree sculptures (to be lovingly chipped by Mr. Sofield's own hands on site, The Observer was told), and will pass beneath wrought iron gates installed on the first-floor façade, forged at the same foundry as those at Buckingham Palace, on display at the building's sales office at 654 Madison Avenue.

The Brodskys are looking for a cool $50 million for the full-floor penthouse (the top one, at least—the style may be pre-war, but the penthouse inflation is all too modern), which features such culinary delights as a breakfast room and a "morning kitchen"—because having all your meals prepared in the same room is so middle class.

Compared to its limestone rival down the street—200 East 79th Street, on the more plebeian Third Avenue—135 East 79th Street has sold more slowly, but at a higher price per square foot. According to StreetEasy, the average listing at 135 East 79th Street is asking around $3,000 a foot, whereas its rival on Third Avenue is asking $2,000.

"One nice thing about when developers do a project like [135 East 79th Street]," Ms. Olshan said, "is that it telegraphs to the real estate community and consumer that they're interested in high quality work and finishes, and that they're a developer that's here to stay. It's essentially luxury goods marketing, but with a real estate direction to it."

While other brokers followed dollar signs in Midtown and across Madison Avenue, Mr. Baker, then a young broker living in a Ninth Avenue bachelor pad, saw potential in the dusty warehouses and loading docks he walked past in the summer of 2000.

“I knew I wanted to control the neighborhood,” recalled the 40-year-old Mr. Baker, now a managing partner at Winick Realty, who has played a leading role in transforming the area.

From Far West Side to... Scarsdale?

From his earliest deals with Payless Shoe Source and John Jay College, which created classrooms on 10th Avenue where a boarded-up retail space once shriveled, Mr. Baker has helped change the Far West Side from a ghost town of dreary industrial buildings into a pedestrian-heavy attraction for city trendsetters and tourists alike.

Earlier this year, in fact, he inked yet another deal in the area that has triggered a wave of new business, all geared toward the Far West Side’s revitalized landscape.

At the TF Cornerstone-owned 505 West 37th Street, where Mr. Baker serves as the leasing agent, Ark Restaurants, the national group behind the Bryant Park Grill and Sequoia, inked a long-term, 10,350-square-foot lease for an upscale eatery on the building’s ground floor. Add to that the fact that Ark convinced former Chanterelle chef David Waltuck to create the menu and lured Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne into designing the restaurant and the message snapped into focus: lease now.

“It helped spur other deals in the buildings,” said Mr. Baker, referring not only to 505 West 37th Street but to other properties that TF Cornerstone owns in the area. “It helped people realize it won’t just be a destination—it will be a hip destination.”

Within days of the news, calls from prospective tenants jammed the line. A catering hall targeting young sophisticates inked 10,000 square feet around the corner. After that, a wine store committed to 2,200 square feet at 455 West 37th Street, another TF Cornerstone property Mr. Baker oversees. Of the 28,000 feet he was tasked with leasing at those TF Cornerstone properties, less than 6,000 remains, he said.

And while the repercussions of the mortgage crises and ensuing economic collapse still linger in most real estate markets, the Far West Side has benefited from news of an extended 7 train to 11th Avenue by 2013, development of the Hudson Yards by the Related Companies, earlier rezoning efforts and, farther north, Riverside South.

“When times are tough, landlords need our services more than ever,” said Mr. Baker. “It’s like that Honda commercial—“They sell themselves.”

As the Far West Side has evolved, so too has Mr. Baker’s career. While he now counts the Brodsky Organization and TF Cornerstone as two powerful clients, his earliest contacts, such as a Ninth Avenue landlord for whom he has inked seven deals since their relationship began in 2000, remain nearly as vital to him as the big shots.

It was Mr. Baker’s familiarity with so many clients, in part, that persuaded Winick Realty founder and chief executive Jeffrey Winick to name the broker as one of the firm’s two partners two years ago. Indeed, following Mr. Winick’s decision in 2009 to dedicate more time to brokerage activities—and less to managerial duties—at the firm, Mr. Baker added partner to his co-president title. Despite growing pains, he’s learning.

“I want to grow as a manager,” said Mr. Baker, whose entire career has been spent with Winick, which has divulged that future plans for the company include launching an investment-sales division. “I want to make this company more entrepreneurial.”

“They are two completely opposite skill sets,” he added, referring to the distinction between brokers and real estate managers. “It’s very difficult to be a player-coach.”

In his brief tenure as a manager, Mr. Baker has spearheaded a drive to hire younger brokers, many of them recent college graduates, whom he believes are among the most passionate of the city’s pool of potential new real estate professionals.

As Mr. Baker sees it, the industry’s most talented brokers exhibit three strengths, with fundamental knowledge of the business and personality lagging behind what he defined as the most crucial of skills for young brokers trying to break in.

“Mental IQ is in there, but I certainly wouldn’t say that I’m the smartest person in the room,” said Mr. Baker. “The most important thing is the burning desire.”

Weathering the economic downturn is one of a real estate manager’s most difficult tasks, and when it became clear that business would be affected by the collapse, Mr. Baker extolled the young brokers on his team to stop worrying. “We said, ‘Guys, wake up! This is the best time to be a broker,’” said Mr. Baker, who defended his stance by talking up existing capital and rock-bottom interest rates.

Still, there is at least one thing Mr. Baker is not entirely confident about. Despite his early years as a resident of the Far West Side, the broker left the city recently, opting instead for a suburban existence with his young family.
But while soaring rent and cramped housing most certainly can take the broker out of Manhattan, taking Manhattan out of the broker, he said, is a totally different story.

“I reluctantly live in Scarsdale,” acknowledged Mr. Baker, who last week said he was considering a return to the city. “We are Upper West Siders, through and through.”
gvoien@observer.com

The plans were unveiled late last year as part of the seminary’s capital-improvement project. The upshot: The school’s endowment is beleaguered; operating expenses are climbing; and the school’s other buildings are falling into disrepair. The idea is that the new building will generate funds to renovate and restore the cloister of Gothic Revival buildings that make up most of the campus, which makes up most of the city block on Ninth Avenue between 20th and 21st streets.

But in the neighborhood they’re complaining about the size and scale of the proposed building and the possibility that allowing GTS to bypass the historic-district rules that took effect in the neighborhood more than 30 years ago, as well as a local zoning regulation that limits new buildings to a height to 750 feet will set a precedent.

Enter yet another Manhattan neighborhood group: Save the Chelsea Historic District.

“This is the classic story that's happening all over New York, and there's no question that if this goes through, there are other institutions in Chelsea which all of a sudden will start thinking, ‘Hey, this will solve our problems too,’” said Robert Trentlyon, the president of the group and a member of the local community board. “The whole [Chelsea Historic] District will go.”

The General Theological Seminary has rather older roots in the neighborhood, having moved there in 1827 after Clement Clark Moore (author of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas), donated it to the seminary.

The first of the seminary’s existing red brick and brownstone Gothic Revival buildings was built in 1836; together, these buildings are grouped around “the Close,” a landscaped quadrangle nestled in the interior of the block. The four-story modernist Sherrill Hall was built in 1961 to house the seminary’s St. Mark’s library, which, according to a press release, is in danger of water damage as a result of the building’s poor construction and deteriorated condition.
One school official told The Observer the repairs aren’t worth it on such a valuable piece of real estate.

“We thought, ‘Why are we going to put $4 to $6 million into a lousy building that's ugly and doesn't contribute to the historic district or to the Close, and also doesn't really function well for the seminary?’”

The seminary teamed up with the Brodsky Organization, a real-estate-development firm, and Polshek Partnership, and came up with a 13-story, glass-sheathed tower perched on a four-story base that follows the lines and form of the other seminary buildings nearby, according to Ms. Burnley. The upper floors will house 80 residential units, and the seminary’s library, administrative offices and bookstore will occupy the lower floors. Financing will be provided via the Brodsky Organization, which will pay the seminary $25 million to develop the project; in return, it will receive a 99-year lease on the residential floors of the building, which will reverts to the seminary on expiration.

The Commnity Board is going to send a letter to the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the City Planning department detailing its objections to the project. In part, the letter will detail why the Community Board believes the seminary is embellishing the story of its financial difficulties. Both addressees will have to sign off on the seminary’s plans before they can get underway.

- Matthew Grace