New York City real estate developers and architects can overcome a lot of problems with patience and ingenuity.

The developers of this attractive project at 285 Lafayette Street between Prince and Houston Streets, spent three years convincing the City Planning Commission to remap the site to permit its conversion from commercial to residential use and to enlarge the existing non-fireproof building.

Their solution was to erect a fireproof building over the non-fireproof building.

According to an article in New York Construction News, "Because the non-fireproof columns could not be used, the structural engineer devised a system of steel beams hung from tubular grillage spanning up to 70 ft. between existing masonry walls."

"To set the beams in place and comply with imposed height limitations," the article continued, "it was necessary to remove the existing roof structure. Water tanks providing sprinkler, standpipe and domestic services were replaced with a series of pumps placed in a subcellar. The existing fifth floor was then covered with a modified bitument roof and temporary drainage was provided to protect the existing tenants. A new seventh floor construction served as a fire separation and as a platform upon which a new four-story brick and block-bearing wall structure was erected."

The expanded project was completed in 1999 and the efforts of Allied Partners Inc., the developer, were successful especially when David Bowie, the rock star, bought one of the penthouse units and Patrick McEnroe, the tennis player, purchased an apartment. Other purchasers included IBM heiress Olive Watson, the owner of Tootsi Plohound, Eric Nederlander of the theater family, and Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch of the communications family. (Mr. Murdoch subsequently acquired a six-story building at 11 Spring Street, that he subsequently sold.)

The eight penthouses in the new section of the building have wood-burning fireplaces and 26-foot-high ceilings. All the apartments have Brazilian hardwood flooring, polished nickel vanities, wine coolers and six-foot bathtubs and the building has a roof garden and the 800-square-foot lobby has a 10-foot-long white onyx countertop.

The building s former address was 271 Mulberry Street.

Eric Hadar is a principal of Allied Partners and was profiled in a February 12, 2001 article by Andrew Rice in The New York Observer:

"Mr. Hadar, 36, had made a modest name for himself using seed money from his father, Richard, to acquire and revive down-at-the-heels properties. But the purchase of the Citigroup Center at 153 East 53rd Street - one of the skyline's signature skyscrapers - vaulted him into a new league.

"Owning Citigroup places his family name next to the Rudins, the Resnicks, and the Dursts in the city's real estate elite. 'I think it's a pretty great story,' Mr. Hadar said, as he launched into a history of how, in just seven years, he had turned a building with a ground-floor bodega at East Houston Street and Avenue D into a real estate empire. 'We started with a $900,000 building, and we're now in a $760 million building.'

"Just as fascinating, though, is the history Mr. Hadar prefers not to talk about - the story of how his father built a fortune out of a mound of cubic zirconia and promises of 'You May Already Be a Winner!' With his finely tailored suits and his yacht named the Josher III, the elder Mr. Hadar cut a memorable swath through the direct-mail industry in the 1980s. The federal government chased him, claiming his advertising methods were deceptive, and eventually forced him to sign an agreement banishing him from the industry forever.

"Since he entered semi-retirement, Mr. Hadar has used the buyout proceeds to live a good life and to invest in his son's real estate. In the early 1990s, when credit was tight for most investors, his millions allowed Eric Hadar to buy buildings with cash. Most of the money to buy the Citigroup building, he said, came not from his father, but from the proceeds of the $200 million sale of another building, 1 East 57th Street, to the French corporation Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Fresh out of Columbia Business School in the late 1980's, the younger Mr. Hadar went to work as an analyst at the real-estate-financing firm Sonnenblick-Goldman and caught the eye of a superior, Brad Reiss. Soon, Mr. Hadar was promoted to vice president. Then the real estate market collapsed and the deals dried up. Mr. Reiss left to work at a real estate brokerage firm. Mr. Hadar went to work for Wesley Wood's marketing firm. Then, around 1993, Mr. Reiss got a phone call: Mr. Hadar wanted to get back into real estate.

"Using $500,000 in seed money from his father, the two men started a company called Allied Partners, hooking up with two seasoned real estate investors, Larry Friedland and Arnold Penner. He bought a former candy factory at 285 Lafayette Street from the FDIC, which had inherited it from a financially troubled bank. Making peace with the residents by giving them part ownership, Mr. Hadar renovated the building and added four floors, attracting famous tenants like David Bowie and hotelier Ian Schrager, who rents Mr. Hadar's own penthouse. 'I know he's primarily a financial guy, but he did a tremendous job renovating 285 Lafayette,' Mr. Schrager said."

The 10-story building, which is south of the famous Puck Building on the southeast corner of Lafayette and Houston Streets, has 21 condominium apartments on top of the original six-story loft building that was built in 1912.

Allied Partners would subsequently acquire 50 West 40th Street, Studio 54, 770 Lexington Avenue, 568 Broadway, and, in partnership with Boston Properties, Citicorp Center, and, in partnership with partners of Brown Harris Stevens, 48 Wall Street.

Costas Kondylis Interiors Inc., was the design architect for the interiors and WYS Design Partnership Architects was the architect. LZA Technology was the structural engineer for the $29 million project.

The building has about 30,000 square feet of retail space which has been leased to the New York Public Library and Polo Ralph Lauren.

This is a very lively neighborhood with considerable traffic and noise and many restaurants and boutiques and good public transportation.

The red-brick building has a two-story rusticated limestone base and several setbacks with terraces above the sixth floor.