Schumacher condos aim for new “billionaires club”

From left: The Schumacher, Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes
From left: The Schumacher, Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes

The Schumacher, a 21-unit loft condominium conversion at 36 Bleecker Street in Noho, has officially launched sales, officials involved with the project told The Real Deal.

Contracts for 10 of the units, which will be ready for move-ins by September 2014, were sent out to interested buyers last night and today, soon after the offering plan was approved, a spokesman for the project said.

The seven-story building, formerly a printing factory, will contain two- to four-bedroom lofts, priced from $3.75 million to $25 million and ranging from 1,200 square feet to nearly 4,500 square feet, a spokesperson for the Schumacher said.

Architect Morris Adjmi is working to restore the building’s 20-foot-high Queen Anne-style pediment that was destroyed in the 1920s, Stillman said.

“The people receiving contracts [yesterday] are art conscious, real estate conscious and they’re very wealthy people,” said Roy Stillman, whose firm Stillman Development International is developing the project. “It’s very pleasing that the series of plans we designed a year and a half ago are being embraced by the people we had in mind.”

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In April, Douglas Elliman’s John Gomes and Fredrik Eklund, who are leading the marketing team, set up an unorthodox sales center that doubled as an art gallery-like showroom, as previously reported. The office not only showcased the condo designs but also paintings by artists such as José Parlá.

The units will feature barrel-vaulted ceilings and arched windows. Amenities planned for the building include a central courtyard from Ken Smith, a roof garden designer with the Museum of Modern Art, and an art program curated by Soho gallerist Cristina Grajales.

Thus far, the marketing initiative to reach a niche audience has been successful, Gomes said. (In fact, the marketing has been so selective that The Real Deal was ejected from a party last week promoting the development to brokers.)

“This building is going to be the new billionaires club,” he said.