Look, up within the skyline. It’s a chicken, it’s a aircraft, it’s New York Metropolis’s newest office-to-residential conversion!
The previous workplace constructing at 25 Water Road, which as soon as housed muckrakers just like the New York Every day Information and Nationwide Enquirer, is now able to welcome residents to their new residence after being developed by GFP Real Estate, Metro Loft Administration and Rockwood Capital.
In its former life, the 32-story constructing completed in 1969 was designed to appear to be an IBM punch card — not precisely aesthetically pleasing. There was additionally a stunning lack of home windows on the waterfront constructing. So, the builders enlisted the providers of architectural agency CetraRuddy to rework the constructing inside and outside from an previous, drab workplace house right into a mecca for luxurious downtown residing.
The Monetary District condominium advanced, rebranded as SoMA — a play on the constructing’s southern Manhattan location — now presents 1,320 residences starting from studios to three-bedrooms, in addition to roughly 100,000 sq. toes of life-style facilities.
“That constructing had been available on the market once in a while over time earlier than COVID, after which when COVID hit, it was clear that it was not going to outlive as an workplace constructing,” stated Brian Steinwurtzel, co-CEO and principal of GFP. “We went about attempting to determine the way to create a constructing that may not solely be an exquisite condominium constructing however a neighborhood for residents, as a result of we knew with a 1.1 million-square-foot workplace constructing that there could be over 1,000 residences.”
Facilities at 25 Water Road embrace coworking areas, a landscaped roof terrace with grilling stations and areas for personal eating, an indoor “serenity lounge” with views of Battery Park, an indoor basketball court docket, pickleball courts, and coaching studios for Pilates and yoga. If that wasn’t sufficient, there are additionally two swimming pools — one indoor and one out of doors, in addition to an on-site spa.
Some 25 % of the constructing’s items might be designated as inexpensive housing, Steinwurtzel stated, and a portion of these might be particularly priced to cater to residents incomes between $80,000 and $100,000 per yr. At present accessible market-rate items begin at $3,545 per 30 days for a studio.
SoMA is the primary office-to-residential conversion mission to make the most of the state’s 467-m housing tax incentive, Steinwurtzel famous. 467-m is a part of New York’s efforts to fight its decades-long housing disaster via a sequence of packages that supply tax breaks to incentivize improvement.
The 467-m program specifically targets residential conversions. It presents 35-year tax advantages on tasks began by June 30, 2026; 30-year advantages to tasks began by June 30, 2028; and 25-year advantages to tasks began by June 30, 2031. There are additionally no development wage necessities with 467-m, in contrast to the 485x tax incentive program.
“I feel 467-m is a extremely good collaboration of business and authorities,” Steinwurtzel stated. “Town and state governments, together with builders like us, collaborated to attempt to give you an incentive package deal that may encourage conversion of workplace buildings to residential and on the similar time assist to resolve the affordability disaster within the metropolis.”
Amanda Schiavo will be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.
