943 Madison Avenue

The Whitney Museum of American Art owes almost $160,000 in unpaid property taxes, DNAinfo reported, largely because of confusion stemming from the sale of its properties to developer Daniel Straus.

In 2010, the Whitney sold six brownstones and two townhouses adjacent to its 954 Madison Avenue home in advance of its forthcoming move to a Renzo Piano-designed home in the Meatpacking District, at  820 Washington Street. The museum had used the buildings for its offices, and continued to lease one of the properties, 943 Madison Avenue, after the sale to Straus. Under the lease agreement the Whitney would cover outstanding taxes. [more]

Nursing home caregivers and theater performers will conduct a satirical street theater performance outside of a Landmarks Preservation commission hearing at 1 Centre Street tomorrow afternoon, to call attention to what they say are unfair labor practices at nursing homes owned by developer Daniel Straus. The LPC tomorrow will be considering a proposal for a development project by Straus’ company JZS Madison to convert six Upper East Side brownstones the firm purchased from the Whitney Museum of American Art into luxury condominiums.

Caregivers will be outside the hearing to call on Straus to put people before corporate greed, according to a statement released by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and the New England Health Care Employees Union. Several nursing home workers are scheduled to testify at the hearing, as well. – Miranda Neubauer [more]

A rendering of the new Whitney MuseumFrom the July issue: All museums, like buildings in general, have a real estate dimension. From the simple act of purchasing the lot on which the museum will rise to the structure’s interaction with the buildings that surround it, a museum is part of the urban fabric. As such, it bespeaks the attitudes and acquisitiveness of the citizens whom it serves.

But the new $680 million Whitney Museum building, which broke ground on May 26 on Gansevoort Street between West and Washington streets along the High Line, seems more intimately and also more insistently in touch with this real estate element than perhaps is true of any other museum to date.

The Whitney — which this year celebrates its 80th anniversary — is moving from the granite citadel that Marcel Breuer designed on Madison Avenue and 75th Street, a Brutalist building that it has inhabited since 1966. [more]

TF Cornerstone showed off the 15,705 square feet of ground-floor retail space at its Meatpacking District rental building, dubbed West Coast, with a party for brokers and other real estate professionals late last month (see photos above). The retail space, underneath the 325-unit building at 95 Horatio Street, has two separate addresses, 90 Gansevoort Street and 810 Washington Street, and is located across the street from a High Line entrance and the forthcoming Whitney Museum. The celebration took place at 810 Washington Street, where a pair of clothing stores have already signed for space — Intermix, for 2,725 square feet and Vanita Rosa, for 825 square feet. – Adam Fusfeld [more]

An Upper East Side townhouse that’s currently serving as the offices for the Whitney Museum is back on the market for $38 million, after selling last October as part of a cluster of eight brownstones.

The Whitney, which sold the eight properties for a combined $95 million, according to public records, is currently leasing back the office space at 33 East 74th Street.

A museum spokesperson said that the institution chose to sell the properties “in order to consolidate offices,” in anticipation of the museum’s downtown move. The Whitney is slated to break ground on a new Meatpacking District project this spring.
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More details have emerged from famed architect Renzo Piano’s proposed new High Line-adjacent Whitney Museum, according to the New York Times. While some of Piano’s pricier details, like a stone facade and a cantilever, have had to be scrapped for budgetary reasons, architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff said this move could save millions — a boon to the cash-strapped project, which still needs to raise $215 million before it hits its $590 million goal. Construction on the new Meatpacking District building is set to begin next year, with an expected 2015 completion date. While the Whitney Museum board was initially split on whether to move forward with the project, it unanimously approved the expansion last month. [NYT via Curbed]

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More details have emerged from famed architect Renzo Piano’s proposed new High Line-adjacent Whitney Museum, according to the New York Times. While some of Piano’s pricier details, like a stone facade and a cantilever, have had to be scrapped for budgetary reasons, architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff said this move could save millions — a boon to the cash-strapped project, which still needs to raise $215 million before it hits its $590 million goal. Construction on the new Meatpacking District building is set to begin next year, with an expected 2015 completion date. While the Whitney Museum board was initially split on whether to move forward with the project, it unanimously approved the expansion last month. [NYT via Curbed]

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The board of the Whitney Museum of American Art voted unanimously yesterday to begin construction on a building in the Meatpacking district in Manhattan that will greatly increase the size and scope of the 80-year-old institution, the New York Times reported. Ground will be broken next year, with completion slated for 2015. The board also agreed to sell a group of brownstones adjacent to the museum’s Marcel Breuer-designed building on Madison Avenue and 75th Street, and its annex building around the corner on 74th Street. The sale will effectively end any chance of the museum expanding in its current space, where it has been since 1966. Without room to grow uptown, and without the income needed to run two locations, the Whitney now faces the question of what to do with its Breuer building. “There is no better time to build than now, with construction costs and interest rates at an all-time low,” explained Leonard Lauder, the Whitney’s chairman emeritus and largest benefactor. “Downtown is a new city, a new nation. Why shouldn’t the Whitney be the museum of record there?” [NYT]

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Robert Hurst, former president of the Whitney Museum of American Art, 950 Fifth Avenue, unit 89

The limestone prewar co-op at 950 Fifth Avenue has only seven units and a reputation as a haven for billionaire bachelors — reportedly single Boston Properties CEO Mort Zuckerman lives there, and bigwigs Dennis Kozlowski, formerly of Tyco, and Jonathan Tisch of Loews Hotel are ex-residents. For a cool $29 million, one newcomer could join the pack. The 12-room duplex that belongs to Robert Hurst, a Goldman Sachs alum and former president of the Whitney Museum of American Art, hit the market today, according to Streeteasy.com. The spread, unit 89, has views of Central Park, a maid’s room and on the second floor, via a limestone staircase, three bedrooms. Hurst, now a managing director at private equity firm Crestview Partners, could not be reached for comment and Brown Harris Stevens’ Alexis Bodenheimer, who is the exclusive agent with the brokerage’s Cathy Franklin, was mum on the listing. TRD [more]

The Dia Art Foundation will return to 545 West 22nd Street, building a new space on the footprint of the Chelsea exhibition site it current owns and rents out to the PaceWildenstein gallery. The gallery’s lease is up in 2011. Dia has been on the hunt for a new home in the city since 2004. After outgrowing its two Chelsea locations, Dia initially planned on opening a museum at the entrance to the High Line. The Whitney Museum has since commandeered that site after the Dia lost two directors in a row in addition to its largest benefactor, Leonard Riggio, former chairman of the board. Dia does not plan to hire a star architect — instead, said current director Philippe Vergne, they are looking for a “utilitarian envelope for art” with “no bling.” He said the museum hopes to break ground in 2012.