will it be lofts? new residential development to replace “asylum” at 124 West 16 Street

not worth $1,000/ft (as is)
In looking at newly filed deeds this weekend to update the Master List of Manhattan Lofts Sold Since November 2008 (17 loft resales filed last week!), I came across this odd one: The French Evangelical Church Of New York sold its “4,000 sq ft” building at 124 West 16 Street to some anonymous and eponymous LLC on April 16 for $4mm. That’s $1,000/ft for those of you without sense, or a calculator. StreetEasy says it is a 3-story building on a “2,581 sq ft” lot that has been classified as a “Miscellaneous Asylum and Home” (gotta love that arcana). $1,000/ft seems like a difficult place to start a renovation or conversion, doesn’t it? But (as they say in late night television) wait … there’s more!!!!

Permits have already been filed for a demolition and new building. For those of you with access to Property Shark info, The Shark shows the demolition permit was filed March 16 and the new construction permit on April 6, with two new liens from Midfirst bank totalling $9,161,515, presumably to finance the entire project. The Shark thinks the FAR for the site is 6, that zoning is R8A, that the building is not landmarked, and that the lot is not in a historic district.

Someone better versed than I am in deciphering building permits may extract more information from the New Building application filed with the New York City Department of Buildings, but I see that (if approved and actually built) the new building will be 6 stories, 12,643 sq ft of Total Construction Floor Area, with an Occupancy Classification of Residential – Apartment Houses, covering 70% of the lot, with a perimeter wall height of 80 feet. I can’t find again where I saw it in these documents, but the project will be full-floor residences, so they sound like lofts to me.

architect and developer, again
The architect is David Howell of DND Architecture Design PLLC, but I found no renderings or mention of this project on his website.

The LLC rep who signed the DoB forms uses an email address associated with this real estate business, and has the same last name as the founder of that company.

The inter-tubes tell me he was also associated with the developer of the 5-story residential condominium “classic loft conversion” in 2007 at 225 East 24 Street, using this contractor. The last sale there was the resale of the second floor “3,600 sq ft” loft on December 9 at $3.84mm. When first marketed, these lofts aimed for the high-end market in a non-traditional loft area:

Architectural detailing such as cast iron columns, exposed brick walls with arched insets intersect stylishly with loft classics like high ceilings, wood floors, wood burning fireplace and expansive windows. North, South + West exposures with a 30’ frontage space to create a perfect entertaining and living environment. The open kitchen has stainless Euro fixtures offset by white lacquered cabinetry and bathrooms envisage an understated elegance.

That LLC rep and that inspection company founder were two-thirds of the developer team for the 7-story loft conversion 316 East 22 Street (identified as the same developer team as at 225 East 24 Street, here) that sold in 2010. That building’s StreetEasy page has this building description:

award-winning architect David Howell has put the classic New York loft inside a sleek modern envelope. With 316 East 22nd Street, he has created 6 dramatic, 40-foot-wide, full-floor residences filled with high-end interiors and top-of-the-line details. Discover the best that 21st century design has to offer…

Howell got a below-market deal on his 2nd floor loft in this project, which he features on his website and which is the subject of a Kiwi magazine profile linked on his site.

Presumably, the new project at 126 [oops] 124 West 16 Street will be of the same quality. Interesting that this Chelsea block, like the East 22 Street and East 24 Street blocks for their prior projects, is not a traditional classic loft block. In the two prior cases, they converted existing non-residential loft spaces to residential; with 126 West 16 Street they will be building a new building.

© Sandy Mattingly 2012