70 years later, Olmstead looks to sell Noho development site

Block-long lot with 32K buildable sf could go for as much as $35M, sources say

From left: 363 Lafayette Street in Noho, Richard Baxter and Stephen Shapiro
From left: 363 Lafayette Street in Noho, Richard Baxter and Stephen Shapiro

Samuel Rosenblatt’s Olmstead Properties is putting a Noho development site with 32,000 buildable square feet on the market, The Real Deal has learned.

The block-long, 5,500-square-foot corner lot at 363 Lafayette Street, near Great Jones Street, was the former home of Jones Diner but now houses a billboard. Olmstead, which has owned the site since the 1940s, planned to build an office or residential condominium building in 2007. Olmstead secured a zoning variance for residential use but it has since lapsed, sources said.

Olmstead tapped JLL’s New York Capital Markets Group team led by Richard Baxter and Stephen Shapiro to market the property. Both declined to comment. Baxter and Shapiro are marketing it as either an office or residential building with a 4,500-square-foot ground-floor retail space.

The structure could rise between six to eight stories, depending on a variance that would have to be approved by the city, sources said.

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The site, which also has the addresses of 357 Lafayette Street and 23 Great Jones Street, may fetch up to $35 million, or $1,100 per buildable square foot, sources said.

The property boasts 200 feet of frontage along Lafayette Street, almost 50 Feet On Great Jones Street and 6 Feet On Bond Street.

A representative for Olmstead could not be immediately reached for comment.

Famed artist Chuck Close sued Olmstead in 2008, alleging that the previous BKSK Architects-designed condo project would block natural light in his neighboring artist co-op building at 20 Bond Street, as TRD reported.