Those old Verizon buildings in NYC? They’re condo towers now

Verizon Communications sold 10 of its New York City properties over the past decade – most of which have been converted into brick, residential condominium towers.

Apartments, retail shops and even medical offices have come to occupy former Verizon spaces as developers take pleasure in the design obstacles, the New York Times reported. JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group’s 24-story Walker Tower is the most prominent example of a luxury residential conversion from a Verizon-owned building. The telecom giant used the prewar building as storage for copper wire prior to the sale. Verizon still has a few floors that it uses to house equipment and offices at both Walker Tower and Stella Tower.

New York University’s Langone Medical Center largely owns the buildings at 227 East 30th Street and 240 East 38th Street that now fulfill medical uses.

Magnum Real Estate Group and CIM Group, which jointly paid $274 million last fall for the top 21 stories of the 31-story Verizon headquarters at 140 West Street, plans to construct 161 condominium units. The project will be known as Barclay Square, according to the New York Times.

“Their locations are such that they can be repurposed into much higher and better uses,” James Murphy, executive managing director at Colliers International, told the paper. [NYT] — Mark Maurer