Skip to Content
CityRealty Logo
Plans to convert 15 Union Square West
By Carter Horsley   |   From Behind The Buildings Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Brack Capital Real Estate USA has acquired the six-story, 80,000-square foot Amalgamated Bank Building at 15 Union Square West on the southwest corner at 15th Street for $80 million and reportedly plans to erect a residential condominium building on the site.

Bill Shanahan of CB Richard Ellis was the broker in the transaction.

According to an article in today's edition of The New York Post by Lois Weiss, "Perkins Eastman Architects have been hired to handle the architecture while Vicente Wolf will work on the modern interior flairs."

The article included a statement from Brack Capital that the building "will be woven into the urban tapestry of Union Square Park, evoking its colorful lie and history." A call to Brack Capital seeking further details today was not returned.

The bank is relocating and the building can be demolished or expanded by 20,000 square feet under existing zoning.

In an article in the July 2, 2006 edition of The New York Times, Christopher Gray wrote that "the politest thing to say about the blocky white blob of a building at the south corner of 15th Street and Union Square West is that it's homely," adding that "buried beneath the 1953 facade is the 1870 building of Tiffany & Company," a cast-iron building designed by John Kellum. Tiffany moved from this location in 1903 to 401 Fifth Avenue at 37th Street and is now at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Perkins Eastman's other New York projects have included 455 Central Park West.

Brack Capital Real Estate's other New York projects have included the Element, the Olcott on West 72nd Street, 90 West Street and 230 Riverside Drive.
Architecture Critic Carter Horsley Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.