10 Madison Square West, 5 West 24th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 5 West 24th Street by Carter Horsley

This conversion and expansion of the commercial building at 1107 Broadway between 24th and 25^th Streets overlooking Madison Square Park into a 22-story residential condominium building known as 10 Madison Square West was scheduled to be completed in 2015.

The building has 125 apartments.

It was redeveloped by The Witkoff Group and Vector Group Ltd, an affiliate of New Valley LLC, which owns a controlling interest in Douglas Elliman Realty.

Goldstein, Hill & West were the architects for the conversion.

Alan Wanzenberg is the interior designer and Signe Nielsen of Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects is designing the courtyard.

Bottom Line

An enlargement and make-over conversion of an bleak office building into luxury condos across from Madison Square Park and Shake Shack and across 24^th Street from Eataly, the very popular large Italian food emporium.

Description

The building, which fronts on Broadway, has a chamfered corner across 24^th Street from 200 Fifth Avenue and the entrance to the very popular Eataly.

The building has a revolving door entrance and a large bronze marquee, four globular building lights and sidewalk landscaping.

The building’s old façade has been modernized with a central grid fenestration pattern on Broadway flanked by multi-floor vertical groupings and topped with two-story groupings beneath the first setback that does not extend fully to the corners.

The old 16-story building was connected to 200 Fifth Avenue by a 9^th floor pedestrian skywalk that is being removed.  The two buildings for many years comprised the 1-million square-foot Toy Center as the area had several major showroom buildings.

According to a May 30, 2013 article by Alison Gregor in The New York Times, the Witkoff Group demolished a 40,000-square-foot portion of this building on its northwestern side to be able to add space to the top of the building.

Amenities

The building has a concierge, a doorman, a live-in superintendent, bicycle storage, a children’s playroom, a residents’ club, a fitness center managed by the Wright Fit with a 60-foot pool, private storage, and a courtyard garden.

Apartments

The 22^nd floor penthouse has 6,500 square feet with 1,700 square feet of private terraces, a 1,300-square-foot great room has a fireplace, and six bedrooms.

The tower residences on floors 18 through 21 has 11-foot-high ceilings.

Apartments have wide-plant white oak floors and beamed ceilings, double vanities in the master baths with Carrara marble floors and walls and kitchens have SieMatic cabinetry and Carrara marble countertops.

Apartment C on the 19^th, 20^th and 21st floors at the building’s northeast corner have three bedrooms and angled great rooms with open, pass-through kitchens.

Apartment F on floors 9 through 17 at the north end of the building are four-bedroom units with long entrance galleries that lead to an angled great room with a window facing the park and an open  kitchens with an island.

Apartment 2B is a two-bedroom unit with a long entrance gallery that leads to a living/dining room with an open pass-through kitchen that opens onto a rear terrace.

History

A September 28, 2011 article by Katherine Clarke at therealdeal.com reported that “Steve Witkoff’s Witkoff Group has completed its purchase of part of the former International Toy Center building from Lehman Brothers Holdings for $191 million, Lehman announced yesterday, following a bankruptcy auction by Eastdil Secured in June.”

The article said that “Witkoff is planning a $290 million condominium conversion of the property, at 1107 Broadway, featuring 145 units, in collaboration with a Morgan Stanley real estate fund,” adding that “The closing of the 16-story office building follows the sale of 200 Fifth Avenue earlier this month, which was previously the main Toy Center building, for $726 million.

The article noted that Yitzhak Tessler’s Tessler Developments had purchased the building in 2007 for$235 million from the Chetrit Group and had planned to add eight floors and develop 187 condominium apartments.

“Then, in 2010,” the article continued, “the bankrupt Lehman sued Tessler and his company LLC to foreclose on a $136.8 million loan on the property. According to the lawsuit, Lehman provided 1107 Broadway LLC with the $136.8 million loan to finance the purchase of the property,” adding that Tessler said that all litigation had been dropped.

An October 2, 2013 article at crainsny.com by Daniel Geiger noted that Savann is buying the 30,000-square-foot retail condo at 1107 Broadway for nearly $60 million.  The space includes the building’s ground and second floors as well as its basement.

Savanna, a real estate investment firm that has been an active buyer and seller of buildings in the past few years, is negotiating the purchase of the retail condo at 1107 Broadway for nearly $60 million.

The space, which encompasses the building's ground and second floors as well as its basement, totals about 30,000 square feet.