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Acadia wants $136M for new condos at original Empire State Building
The developer submitted a conversion plan for 640 Broadway to the AG last week
Acadia Realty Trust filed an offering plan last week for the condominium conversion of 640 Broadway, a turn-of-the-century rental property in Noho that was originally known as the Empire State Building.
The offering plan has not yet been accepted by the New York state Attorney General’s office for sale to the public.
Post conversion, the updated nine-story building will hold 21 condominium units, which the real estate investment trust hopes to dispose of for a total of $135.5 million, or about $6.5 million per apartment on average.
The converters won approval for preliminary construction work from the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2015. Those plans called for changes to the building’s entry facade to make it look more like it did a century ago, when it housed the Empire State Bank and the words “Empire State Building” were etched in relief above the doorway.
A representative for Acadia declined to comment.
The building at 640 Broadway, also known as 172 Crosby Street, has served as a tony rental residence for a few years, and celebrities like Al Pacino and Will Smith have previously been spotted scoping out its $35,000 a month penthouse. But before the building was first converted into luxury rentals in 2012, a 2,500-square-foot loft in the building leased for just $1,291 a month.
Acadia purchased 640 Broadway in 2012 in a joint venture with the Winhaven Group, paying $32.5 million. In January, Acadia Realty Trust closed on financing for the building from Blackstone Mortgage Trust, receiving $48.5 million in loans.
The finished product won’t be the only luxury condo building on the market in the rather small Noho neighborhood, however. Broad Street Development is at work on a $289 million project at 40 Bleecker Street, and at One Great Jones Alley, Madison Realty Capital is still marketing luxury apartments from a 2015 infill development.
In Brooklyn, Acadia is looking to shed its equity stake in the affordable housing component of the City Point megacomplex Downtown.