Art-collecting real estate developer Steven Guttman is combining two passions with a new facility he is building in Long Island City. His development, dubbed Uovo Fine Art Storage, after the Italian word for “egg,” will be the first custom-built fine art storage facility in New York, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing project officials. Generally, art storage spaces are built in modified existing buildings.
“I go and look at the space, and they’re all old buildings,” Guttman, who runs company Storage Deluxe and is the former CEO and chairman of Federal Realty Investment Trust, told the Journal. “As a real estate developer, I said, ‘Boy, this is interesting.'”
The 280,000-square-foot ground-up property will stand 16 feet above sea level to accommodate floodwaters. It is slated to open in 2014. It will encompass two buildings located at 22nd Street, and rents will average $6 or $7 per square foot monthly.
The facility will include customized suites for individual art collections that boast viewing rooms and workshop space. The facility will also have high-tech fire protection, climate control and security.
This is not Guttman’s first art storage space. He opened his first in 2006 on the top two stories of a Storage Deluxe location in the Bronx. [WSJ] —Zachary Kussin