Approx. Prices for Apartments at Executive Plaza, 150 West 51st Street

This large pre-war building, which occupies the entire east blockfront on Seventh Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets and was formerly the Taft Hotel, was divided into two sections with their own adjacent street entrances.

Executive Plaza is the residential condominium section and it contains 443 apartments and the Michelangelo Hotel is the other section. The property had gone through several ownership changes prior to the renaissance of Times Square in the mid-1990's and even the construction of the huge and impressive Equitable Center directly across 51st Street did little to improve the property's economics.

The revival of the Times Square area, helped in no small part at the northern end by the commitment of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States to erect a major new headquarters on Seventh Avenue with a significant amount of public art, however, has changed this property's fortunes.

A new gray polished granite three-story base was part of the rehabilitation and the Michelangelo Hotel, which has a very impressive and large lobby at 152 West 51st Street, closer to the Seventh Avenue corner than the canopied entrance to Executive Plaza, opened in a very heated hotel market when occupancy rates where are record high levels.

The lobby of the Executive Plaza is not as large and lavish as the hotel, but it is closer to Le Bernardin, the famous fish restaurant across the street, and the Ruth Chris Steak House, which occupied the building's eastern sidestreet retail frontage.

The building is one of the city's last remaining large pre-war hotel structures that had deep light wells above a two- or three-story base. The building type was popular at the turn of the century and several were in the Grand Central area such as the famed Biltmore, which was converted to an office building and reclad with a flush facade, the Commodore, which was converted to the Hyatt Regency Hotel and also reclad with a flush facade, and the Roosevelt Hotel on Madison Avenue at 45th Street, the last remaining one in that area. Those hotels were a bit more luxurious than the Taft was because Seventh Avenue was never considered an elegant location.

Seventh Avenue's reputation, however, is changing. The Equitable Center connects internally to the former Paine Webber Building on the Avenue of the Americas at the northern end of the "Rockefeller Center West" complex. Directly south of Executive Plaza on Seventh Avenue is a large parking lot that is planned for major redevelopment by Rockefeller Center. The design for the new office building by Kohn Pedersen Fox, one of the city's premier architectural firms, indicates that the new skyscraper will be about 50 stories tall, very elegant and contextual with the rest of the fabled complex. Thus, Executive Plaza will be between two of the best post-war office buildings in West Midtown.

In the meantime, of course, Times Square and the Theater District continue to be dramatically improved with interesting new construction and they are more vibrant than they have ever been before in their history.

The area here is a fabulous, mixed-use urban environment with superb public transportation, proximity to Rockefeller Center and many office workers, interesting architecture, many tourists, many theater-goers, and a lot of traffic. The beige-brick building has a health club on its 22nd floor, a concierge and a doorman.

The area here is a fabulous, mixed-use urban environment with superb public transportation, proximity to Rockefeller Center and many office workers, interesting architecture, many tourists, many theater-goers, and a lot of traffic. The beige-brick building has a health club on its 22nd floor, a concierge and a doorman.

its 22nd floor, a concierge and a doorman.