541 West 22nd Street

The Dia Art Foundation has broken years of silence regarding its plans for its Chelsea exhibit space on West 22nd Street, telling the New York Times it plans to build a 22,000-square-foot home there after it bought a neighboring parcel.

The return to the New York scene is significant for Dia, which closed its doors in 2004 for lack of space. The building gallery just purchased, 541 West 22nd Street, is between two other buildings Dia owns, the Times said, enabling them to build its dream home. Dia paid $11.5 million for the building last year, the Times said. [more]

From left: 19 West 21st Street and Doug Perlson, CEO of RealDirect

Realdirect.com, the online residential brokerage and listings consultant started in 2010, has doubled its space in the tech-laden Chelsea area and has hired additional agents, which it calls “neighborhood guides,” the company told The Real Deal. [more]

A rendering of the Cornell-Technion campus

Not only did Google’s purchase of a Chelsea headquarters affirm the neighborhood’s tech sector appeal, but the Silicon Valley giant is also using the neighborhood to draw the next wave of start-up entrepreneurs. DNAinfo reported that Google’s headquarters on Eighth Avenue will house the Cornell-Technion applied science graduate school while the permanent campus gets built on Roosevelt Island. Classes are set to begin this fall. [more]

From left: Citizen and the Harsen House (click to enlarge)In its modest, soft-spoken way, “Citizen” is one of the weirdest names that a developer, in this case Anbau Properties, has yet bestowed upon a Manhattan residential development. True, this is an election year, but next year will not be, and the building in question, at 124 West 23rd Street, will still be there. Come to think of it, 2008 — when plans for the site first emerged — was also an election year. In any case, it is hard to divine the purpose of the name.

The 16-story tower, flanked on its eastern side by a building of roughly equal height, contains 34 residences, as well as 4,000 square feet of retail at street level. It was designed by BKSK Architects, who worked with the same developer to create Harsen House, at 120 West 72nd Street. And like that building, it rises over what was once a group of row houses. [more]

David Howell of DHD Architecture and 124 West 16th Street

The buyer who recently closed on a former church-run asylum in Chelsea is tearing down the building and developing a six-story residential building, Manhattan Loft Guy reported. Last month, an LLC that records show is based out of Rhinebeck, N.Y. closed on the $4 million purchase of 124 West 16th Street. The three-story structure was sold by the French Evangelical Church of New York, which had used it as a “miscellaneous asylum and home,” according to Streeteasy.com. [more]

Thor Equities CEO Joseph Sitt and 446 West 14th Street (credit: PropertyShark)

Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities is seeking $45 million for a Meatpacking District property it bought five years ago for about half that amount, Crain’s reported. Thor commissioned Jones Lang LaSalle to find a buyer for the three-story, 15,525-square-foot building, at 446 West 14th Street, between Washington Street and 10th Avenue, it bought for $23.4 million in 2007. [more]

Hotel Chelsea rendering

It turns out the Landmarks Preservation Commission was merely the smaller hurdle the Chetrit Group had to clear to carry out its planned Hotel Chelsea renovation. DNAinfo reported that the developer is working to get Department of Buildings approval for the rooftop addition even as the structure already exceeds the area’s zoning limits.

The landmarked building at 222 West 23rd Street has a total floor area that’s nearly 37,000 square feet larger than the 129,953 zoned for the site, and exceeds the maximum 145-foot height by five feet. [more]

245 10th Avenue, Norman Jean Roy's unit and his photos on the May issue of Vanity Fair

Famed fashion photographer Norman Jean Roy has purchased a 2,519-square-foot West Chelsea condo at the Della Valle Bernheimer building atop the High Line, according to public records filed with the city today. Roy, who regularly photographs for the covers of Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and Harper’s Bazaar, bought the unit at 245 10th Avenue for $3.38 million, records show, slightly less than the asking price of $3.5 million. The unit was listed with Herve Senequier, Leonard Steinberg and Matthew Amico of Prudential Douglas Elliman. [more]

625 Sixth Avenue

Online auction company Ebay has joined the many technology companies inking leases in Midtown South, Crain’s reported. The company plans to open a “technology center” where workers will develop new programs “critical to the Ebay experience,” according to the company’s blog. They expect to have 200 employees in the center within two years. [more]

Interior at the original Bungalow 8

The State Liquor Authority has frozen the liquor license of Bungalow 8′s new reincarnation, DNAinfo reported. The soon-to-reopen venue, at 357 West 16th Street, allegedly hid its identity from Chelsea’s Community Board 4 when it applied for the license, DNAinfo said. [more]