Five Sixty, 560 West 24th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 560 West 24th Street by Carter Horsley

This very handsome, mid-block, 11-story apartment building at 560 West 24^th Street in Chelsea is just to the east of the taller 200 Eleventh Avenue where each apartment contains a garage.

The building, which is scheduled for completion in 2015, has 8 residential condominium apartments designed primarily for art collectors and a ground floor art gallery space.

Adam Gordon and Tavros Development are the developers and Steven Harris was the architect.

Bottom Line

A boutique condominium near the Hudson River in Chelsea for art collectors with some fireplaces, reinforced walls and ceiling lights.

Description

The limestone-clad project has a 7-story base and three setbacks above.

There are many balconies on the west side of the building and a few on the south side.

Amenities

Apartments have wood-burning fireplaces and most have walls reinforced with plywood rather than sheetrock to support heavy pictures and their frames.

Many of the ceilings have embedded lighting to illuminate art and, according to a December 27, 2013 article by C. J. Hughes in The New York Times many of the foyers will have galleries in which a portion of the “wall will be tiled like an easel, to display paintings – perhaps by the residents themselves – that can be easily and quickly switched out, Mr. Gordon said.

Mr. Gordon’s other projects include 54 Bond Street and 92 and 60 Jane Street.

According to an April 2, 2014 article at ny.curbed.com, the building will have “an inset of marble lining the eight-foot-tall windows a detail Gordon likes to call the building’s ‘lingerie,’” adding that the “casement windows feature laser-cut wrought-iron detailing which was custom designed for the building by Harris’s firm.”  The article also said that the building goes 15 feet into the bedrock and has been waterproofed up to the second floor.

Apartments

Studies next to the living rooms will be windowless and larger than unusual so they can be used for storage of art works.

One of the penthouses has 4,596 square feet of interior space and 1,840 square feet of exterior space with a 17-foot-long studio with a wood-burning fireplace and a 15-foot-long terrace, a 15-foot-long stair hall, a 15-foot-ong kitchen with a 21-foot-long terrace and a 61-foot-long living room with a 37-foot-long terrace on the lower floor and four bedrooms and a 15-foot-long terrace on the upper floor.

The four-bedroom unit on the third floor has 3,217-square feet of interior space and 111 square feet of exterior space with a 22-foot-long entrance gallery that leads to a 38-foot-long living room with a 15-foot-terace and a 15-foot-long kitchen with an island.

History

A vacant lot in Chelsea that is a stone's throw from the High Line and adjacent to the glassy new condo tower 200 Eleventh Ave. failed to attract a single bidder at a foreclosure auction in August, 2011, according to an article today at crainsnewyork.com by Amanda Fung. 

The owner, 552 W. 24th St. LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy before defaulting on its $9.5 million loan, the article said, and the property will go back to its lender, Paradigm Credit Corporation when the deed is transferred. 

"The Bayside, Queens, entity, which could not be reached, has a total of $9.7 million in liabilities, according to the filing. Separate court filings reveal that the entity had filed for bankruptcy once before to prevent the foreclosure, but a judge dismissed its motion and granted Paradigm the right to go through with the foreclosure sale. The entity had owned the lot, which is zoned for mixed-use development, for more than 20 years, according to a source. Public documents indicate that the lot owner defaulted on its original loan back in 2009. Shortly before defaulting, the owner came close to selling the property for roughly $400 per buildable square foot, but decided to seek a financial partner to pursue the condo/gallery plan," the article said.

The article said it was "unclear why there were no bidders, considering its proximity to the second stretch of the High Line and its next-door neighbor - 200 Eleventh Ave., the 16-unit luxury condo designed by star architect Annabelle Selldorf."

"The 5,000-square-foot lot, located at 552 W. 24th St., was supposed to be home to 'Sky Galouse,' a new glassy condo development and gallery space, according to real estate blog Curbed, the article said, adding that "DeArch Architects even has a rendering of the 12-story, 10-unit condo on its website."