Leasing is expected to begin next year for the 418 rental apartments that are being converted from office space at the 35-story office at 116 John Street, according to an article that will appear in the Sunday edition of The New York Times by Julie Satow.

"Metro Loft Management, which acquired the building through a joint venture with the current owner, Hacienda Intercontinental Realty, will renovate the building in phases. About 40 percent of the 350,000-square-foot 35-story building still has office tenants, although the developer is hoping that most of them will leave over the next six months. Some of the occupants have leases that do not expire until 2017, 'but with minor incentives from us,' said Nathan Berman, a principal at Metro Loft, 'most tenants are finding that now is an opportune time to seek out new office space, since the market is still soft and they can get a good deal and enter into long-term leases.' For those tenants who do not vacate, the developer will renovate around them."

Avinash K. Malhotra Architects is designed "the roughly $100 million renovation, which will be evenly divided among studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms, with a handful of three-bedrooms mixed in. Amenities will include full-time doormen, a concierge, a rooftop recreation area, a lounge and two gyms,' the article said.

The article said that "Jeremiah LoRusso, a managing director of New York Living Solutions, a residential brokerage that has an office at 90 John Street, says monthly rents in the area average $2,000 for a studio; $2,575 for a one-bedroom; $3,600 for a two-bedroom and upwards of $5,500 for a three-bedroom."

"These older Art Deco buildings outgrew their use as offices but work well as condominiums or rentals," said Laurie A. Grasso, a partner in the law firm Herrick, Feinstein, the article said, adding that "she has worked on several conversions nearby with Metro Loft, including 20 Exchange Place, 63 Wall Street and 67 Wall Street, in addition to 116 John Street."

Mr. Berman of Metro Loft was quoted as stating that he believed "that the financial district can handle several thousand more rental units without a problem, given the demand and the fact that we have a vacancy rate of below 1 percent in our portfolio of buildings. Considering that this area has apartments that are the least expensive in terms of price per square foot, yet offer superior transportation and all of the amenities you get in a white-glove building on the Upper East Side, I see no shortage of demand."

As the small office leases expire over the next two to three years, the rest of the property will be added to downtown's residential rolls. The Art Deco, 35-story building takes up the entire eastern block front bounded by John, Pearl and Platt streets.

"At first glance, 116 John Street, which also fronts on Pearl and Platt Streets, is no different than other downtown office buildings of the same period. It has a mild Art Deco facade that rises 22 stories along the building line wall with setback floors extending to the 35th story," wrote Christopher Gray in his July 31, 1988 "Streetscapes column in The New York Times.

"The lobby has some nice touches - dark-veined marble and metalwork around the doorways - but it is otherwise just an average office building. But looking west on John Street there is a noticeable difference between 116 and its neighbor, 111 John Street, which was built only a year earlier. The 111 building, then owned by 111 John Street Corporation, begins its setback at about 120 feet, at the 11th floor. But the setbacks on 116 begin about 250 feet up, at the 23d floor."

The building at 111 went to the Board of Standards & Appeals to protest but lost when the board upheld the argument of Charles Glaser, the architect of 116 that its site made it a "public place" subject to different zoning, according to the article.