One of Lower Fifth Avenue's handsomest commercial buildings - 141 Fifth Avenue on the southeast corner at 21st Street - has been sold and will be converted to residential condominiums.

The 14-story building was erected as the Merchants Bank of New York Building in 1897 and designed by Robert Maynicke.

Kathy Morrow of The Kaufman Organization, which manages the building, told CityRealty.com today that it is too early to release information on the planned conversion and said that no plans had been submitted yet to the New York State Attorney General's Office.

The building was acquired by SL Green and Savanna Partners recently for about $60 million.

The building's existing tenants include the New York Landmarks Conservancy.

It has a rounded corner and an arched entrance beneath a large circular window. The white-brick building has a domed roof and elaborate terracotta decoration. It has banded columns on the 7th and 8th floors and the 8th floor has large circular windows and the 10th floor has arched windows.

The building is close to the Flatiron Building and Madison Square Park and is convenient to the Gramercy Park, Union Square and Chelsea neighborhoods.

From 1849 to 1890, the site was occupied by the South Dutch Reformed Church.

Robert Maynicke was born in Germany in 1848 and studied at Cooper Union and by 1872-3 was employed by George B. Post where he supervised work on early elevator buildings including the Mills Hotel, the Produce Exchange, the Cotton Exchange, and the Equitable, Havemeyer and Pulitzer Buildings, now all demolished.

According to a report prepared by Donald Presa of the research department of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, Mr. Maynicke "oversaw the contruction of the firm's New York Times Building (1883-89, 41 Park Row, a designated New York City Landmark)." Mr. Maynicke left the Post firm in 1895 to form a partnership with Julius Franke and their new firm would design over 100 large commercial buildings including many stores, lofts and office buildings within what are now the Ladies Mile, TriBeCa and NoHo historic districts and the buildings were mostly in the Renaissance and Classical Revival styles.