Fourteen-story residential conversion planned for 75 Essex Street

Eastern Dispensary building to rise 10 stories

75 Essex Street (Google Maps, iStock, Illustration by Kevin Cifuentes for The Real Deal)
75 Essex Street (Google Maps, iStock, Illustration by Kevin Cifuentes for The Real Deal)

A developer has filed permits to convert a commercial building to a mixed-use building and add 10 stories, paving the way for more residences steps away from the Essex Crossing development.

SoftStone Development Group filed permits to convert the four-story building at 75 Essex Street on the Lower East Side to a 14-story mixed-use building, PincusCo reported. Rise Architecture is listed as the architect on the permits.

The converted building would stand 162 feet tall with 27,000 square feet, split between residential and commercial space. It would have nine residences, likely condo units based on the average size of the unit, according to Yimby.

The Eastern Dispensary building was in contention to be designated as a landmark nearly a decade ago, but it never received final approval. The owner of the property at the time, Shalom Eisner, agreed to pull the former pharmacy off the market as long as he could build on top of it. The building had been listed for $21 million in 2013.

Around the time of the landmark designation debate, Taconic Partners was reportedly eyeing a purchase of the building, across the street from its massive Essex Crossing development. The building has been marketed as a potential condo conversion multiple times.

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The proximity to Essex Crossing could prove to be a boon for the developer.

That massive development is led by Taconic, L+M Development, the Prusik Group, BFC Partners and Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group. The $1.5 billion project is expected to include more than 1,000 residential units across nine buildings, 450,000 square feet of retail space and 350,000 square feet of office space.

Completion is expected in about two years.

SoftStone tends to stay low-key about its projects in development. One of its most prominent ones came to light in 2015, when the developer filed plans for a 122-unit, mixed-use building above a Rite Aid pharmacy in Crown Heights.

[PincusCo] — Holden Walter-Warner