Pace plans $190M upgrade to Lower Manhattan campus

Pace University’s flagship campus in Lower Manhattan is getting a $190 million facelift.

School officials are planning a multi-year renovation of 1 Pace Plaza, the fortress-like building just south of the Brooklyn Bridge, and a neighboring building at 41 Park Row.

“When 1 Pace Plaza was built in the 1960s, it was a turbulent time, and the architecture was designed to screen out the city and make it a haven inside a shell,” Stephen Friedman, Pace’s president, told Crain’s.

The first phase, which kicks off at the end of this year, calls for $45 million worth of improvements to 1 Pace Plaza‘s lower floors. Pace will also seek permission from the Landmarks Preservation Commission to relocate the entrance of 41 Park Row to Spruce Street.

During a second phase of construction, Pace plans to add two floors — some 67,000 square feet — to the top of 1 Pace Plaza. FXFowle will design the addition.

Pace will finance the construction with donations from entrepreneur Joseph Lubin and roughly $100 million in proceeds from the sale of real estate in recent years, including 106 Fulton Street and its Briarcliff Manor campus in Westchester. “We’re planning to raise the additional money needed for the work,” Friedman said.

Last year, Pace bought a stake in its dormitory building from SL Green and the Naftali Group for $38 million. Israeli shipping magnate Rami Ungar paid $158 million for a stake in the ground lease of the building at 33 Beekman Street. [Crain’s] — E.B. Solomont