Sheffield57 - 322 West 57th Street - Midtown - Condo - by Emery Roth & Sons

[pianoman11686]

From http://cityrealty.com:

New owners will convert the Sheffield on 57th Street to condos 22-JUL-05

The Sheffield at 322 West 57th Street, which is one of the city’s largest apartment buildings with about 845 units, is being converted from rentals to condominium apartments.

Erected in 1978 by Rose Associates, the 50-story, brown-brick building is directly to the west of the Hearst Building, a new skyscraper designed by Sir Norman Foster with criss-cross stainless-steel bracing and jagged corners. Although the Hearst Tower is very large, it will partially block views of less than 5 percent of the apartments in the Sheffield, which was designed by Emery Roth & Sons.

The Sheffield is just to the east of the handsome Park Vendome mid-rise apartment complex that has a large garden courtyard between 57th and 56th Streets. In recent years, this area has improved substantially with the conversion of the Hudson Hotel to the west and the construction of the Time-Warner Center one block to the north.

The building was recently sold by Rose Associates to Swig Burris Equities, YL Real Estate Developers and S & H Equities for $418 million, the winning bid in a second round of bidding in the transaction that was brokered by Darcy Stacom of CB Richard Ellis. There were 15 bidders in the first round and 5 bidders in the second.

The tower has about 109,000 square feet of office space, a through-block driveway, a plaza, a double-height lobby, a health club, a 345-car gararge, and a rooftop paddle-tennis court.

Details of the conversion plan are not yet available.

[Edward]

The Sheffield, Central Park Place and the construction of Hearst Building. 4 September 2004.

[muziqgod]

While they aren't doing any renovations to the units to prepare for the conversion, they are offering the pre-conversion price of 1.4 mil for a 500+ square foot studio on the 49th floor to the current tenant. WHAT A DEAL!! ha - they want to get them out to combine it with the corner 2 bed next door.

[lofter1]

Wow --

~ $2,800.00 per sq. ft. !!

Who do I call for such a deal?

[pianoman11686]

From http://cityrealty.com/new_developments:

The Sheffield conversion reduces number of units from 845 to 600 02-OCT-06



The condominium conversion of The Sheffield rental apartment building at 322 West 57th Street will reduce the number of units in the 50-story, brown-brick tower from about 845 to 600 units.

Erected in 1978 by Rose Associates, the building is directly to the west of the Hearst Building, a new skyscraper designed by Sir Norman Foster with criss-cross stainless-steel bracing and jagged corners. Although the Hearst Tower is very large, it will partially block views of less than 5 percent of the apartments in the Sheffield, which was designed by Emery Roth & Sons.

The Sheffield is just to the east of the handsome Park Vendome apartment complex that has a large garden courtyard between 57th and 56th Streets.

The Sheffield, which is known now as Sheffield 57, was sold last year by Rose Associates to Swig Burris Equities, YL Real Estate Developers and S & H Equities for $418 million. The tower has about 109,000 square feet of office space, a through-block driveway, a plaza, a double-height lobby, a health club, a 345-car garage, and a rooftop paddle-tennis court.

For many years, the building was a lonely high-rise pioneer in the northwest corner of midtown, but in recent years, this area has improved substantially with the conversion of the Hudson Hotel to the west and the construction of the Time-Warner Center one block to the north.

An article by Steve Cutler in the October, 2006 edition of The Real Deal reported that “With all but 90 of the units vacant, Swig is combining and reshaping apartments..., completely replacing the electrical wiring and plumbing, totally restructuring the plaza, expanding and reconstructing the lobby....”

Moed de Armas & Shannon is redesigning the lobby and the recladding of the building’s base with granite and glass and Cetra/Ruddy is the architectural firm for the residential conversion.

The building’s top two floors will have a private restaurant, a screening room, a children’s playroom and a lounge offering breakfast and evening cocktails and that the top floor will have a fitness center, spa, sundeck and a swimming pool that is “open-air in the summer and indoor in the winter,” according to the article.

The building was long distinguished by its roof-top paddle-tennis court, which, apparently, will not be kept in the conversion.

Renovated studios, the article continued, will be priced in the low $600,000s, “and one-bedroom apartments in the low $800,000s,...two-bedrooms, priced at just over $1 million; and three-bedrooms with southwest and northern views for around $3 million.”

An article by in the October 2005 edition of The Real Deal by Tom Achitelli reported that “In 1990, Rose Associates filed an offering plan for a condo conversion worth about $140 million....that…listed a per-square-foot-price of about $206....” That offering was abandoned as the city and nation entered a serious recession.

Occupancy is anticipated in March.

There is excellent public transportation and good shopping in this area, which is only a few blocks south of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and also only two blocks from Central Park.

[lofter1]

Originally Posted by pianoman11686

Sheffield conversion ...

... Moed de Armas & Shannon is redesigning the lobby and the recladding of the building’s base with granite and glass ...

What's that saying about a "sow's ear" ????

[Peakrate212]

Added benefit of the Hearst Tower is that it blocks the Sheffield looking west....almost as if Sheffield was not there (dare to dream....)

[stache]

The Sheffield is blocking the Hearst, which isn't all that fantastic.

[macreator]

In building news...

Swig sent out a note to the remaining tenants of the Sheffield last week announcing the renumbering of the building's floors in Trump fashion.

A PDF of the announcement sent to tenants is attached.

To paraphrase: the notice announces that the building's floor numbers will be redesignated with floor numbers changing but apartment letters staying the same.

The numbering of the first 5 office floors will remain the same with the renumbering starting on the first residential floor of the building which used to be called 7 and will now be sold as 15. If you're living on the 36th floor you're now living on 43.

The developer is using the office space that starts off the building as a way to make the the renumbering a bit easier. The whole thing is very similar to the numbering at the Park Imperial (Random House) and the Time Warner Center.

[antinimby]

The condominium conversion of The Sheffield rental apartment building at 322 West 57th Street will reduce the number of units in the 50-story, brown-brick tower from about 845 to 600 units.

This is not good.

Moed de Armas & Shannon is redesigning the lobby and the recladding of the building’s base with granite and glass...

This is good.

[ablarc]

Originally Posted by macreator

The numbering of the first 5 office floors will remain the same with the renumbering starting on the first residential floor of the building which used to be called 7 and will now be sold as 15. If you're living on the 36th floor you're now living on 43.

What's the purpose of this?

[lofter1]

Hearst is 46 stories -- now magically the Sheffield (actually 50 stories, but not as tall as Foster's Hearst) has become ~ 10 stories "taller".

Marketers know that people are for the most part "naive" and can be induced to pay more for the promise of living on "higher" floors -- even though there is no basis in reality for the distinction in this case.

In marketing the Sheffield methinks it will be almost like selling swamp land in Florida, where it was termed "tropical" and with "great potential"

[precision80]

I cant believe they can get away with something like this. Its very Trump-ish. I was at the Taj in Ac one and stayed on the "40th" floor which was actually more like 20.

[ramvid01]

Wow, that is a lot of apartments. Too bad there not recladding the whole building, its just way too big...and ugly

[pianoman11686]

Originally Posted by ablarc

What's the purpose of this?

BIG DEAL
Seven Stories in Seven Seconds

By JOSH BARBANEL
Published: October 15, 2006



AFTER Kent M. Swig and his partners paid $418 million for the Sheffield — an occupied 50-story apartment building on West 57th Street in Manhattan — at the height of a soaring real estate market last year, he knew he had to do something special to add some fizz to the marketing campaign.

So, faster than you can say “condo plan amendment,” he has added seven stories to the building.

A condominium conversion is now under way, and the sales office is open.

Still, the 80 remaining tenants in the Sheffield, a brick postwar tower that was once home to 852 renters, were chagrined to discover a note posted near the elevators 10 days ago: henceforth, the floors would be renumbered, and the building would top out at the 57th floor, simply by skipping seven floor numbers.

“In accordance with the first amendment to the offering plan, please be advised that the building’s floor numbers will be redesignated,” the note read.

The building has also been renamed, to the Sheffield57, both because of its address, on 57th Street near Eighth Avenue, and because of its new 57-story status, according to Ramona Mahtani, director of sales at the building.

Nancy Rovelli, an insurance broker who has been fighting efforts to evict her from her market-rate apartment in the building, said her 42nd-floor unit would now be on the 49th floor, and she worries that buyers will be deceived by the change, even though it was disclosed in the amendment filed with the attorney general’s office. She said two tenants had filed a complaint with the attorney general about the change, saying it was deceptive and a form of tenant harassment.

“People who are looking to buy will think they are going to be on the 49th floor when it is really the 42nd,” she said.

Mr. Swig said that the renumbering was part of a broader transformation of the Sheffield into an essentially new, more luxurious building.

Mr. Swig’s partners are Yair Levy of YL Real Estate Developers and Serge Hoyda of S & H Equities.

Because many new buildings skip floor numbers to make their buildings seem taller than they are, Mr. Swig said, it is only reasonable for the Sheffield57 to do the same. Besides, he said, the five commercial floors at the base of the building have unusually high ceiling heights, although he declined to provide any figures.

“It is a complete re-envisioning,” he said. “The project is brand new.”

The project, one of the largest condo conversions ever, was valued by Mr. Swig at more than $848 million in filings with the attorney general’s office. Prices will range from $660,000 for a studio to $1.7 million for a two-bedroom.

Under the new plan, the floor numbers skip from 5 to 15, and the large swimming pool, which will have retractable glass walls, will remain on the top floor, now the 57th.

But exaggerating building heights isn’t really new. The existing Sheffield already skips both the 6th and 13th floors. The original plans for the Sheffield show the building topping out at only 48 floors.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company