Roster of Planned Office-to-Residential Conversions Increasing
An increasing number of office property owners are joining the growing roster of planned office-to-residential conversions. The Greenwich Village building at 5 West 13th Street recently traded for $57.5 million, financed with a $37.5 million loan from Maxim Capital. Although plans have yet to be finalized, new ownership, a partnership of EJS Group and Legion Investment Group are planning to develop a 20- to 30-story luxury condominium tower on the site of the existing 6-story, 110,000-square-foot office building. Located on the border of Union Square, the building was formerly home to New York City’s Human Resources Administration for 20-years. A second application filed last week is for the conversion of 623 Fifth Avenue. The 38-story, 499,100-square-foot building that connects to the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship at 611 Fifth Avenue is owned by Cohen Bros. Realty. According to reported details of the filing, the luxury department store will continue to occupy the lower 10 floors of Cohen Bros.’ building that is only about 12% occupied, while the upper floors totaling approximately 344,300 square feet would be converted to about 172 2,000-square-foot residential condo units.