Star investor and philanthropist Michael Steinhardt and an unnamed partner have acquired rom the New York Stock Exchange two former American Stock Exchange buildings, 18-22 Thames Street and 78-86 Trinity Place, for a total of $65 million.
Mr. Steinhardt, who made his money as Wall Street’s so-called most successful money manager and who now mostly focuses on his philanthropy for Jewish causes, picked up the buildings amidst widespread expectation that the Financial District’s fortunes will start looking up after getting wrecked by the economic downturn.
Not that the presence of one of finance’s most successful faces means the district will cease being FiDi. Mr. Steinhardt and his partner plan to turn the $17 million Trinity Place property, the ASE’s one-time headquarters and complete with the old trading floor, into a retail center with a 174-room boutique hotel above it. The Thames Street property, the more expensive of the two, closing at $48 million, is set to meet a grimmer fate: the plan is to tear the building down and build a 60-story luxury condo tower.
mcoyne@observer.com
