The house owners of 9 West 57th Street insist they haven’t any plans to promote the enduring property, one among Manhattan’s premier workplace towers, regardless of a bombshell report which claimed a deal was within the works.
“There are no plans to sell the building,” Hayden Soloviev, a son of and a spokesman for Soloviev Group chairman Stefan Soloviev informed Realty Check.
“The news must’ve been mixed up with the residential sales,” Hayden Soloviev speculated. (Soloviev Group has in actual fact been promoting off a few of its luxurious rental condominium buildings).
An article in the Real Deal final month set off a wild guessing recreation when it reported that Stefan was “finalizing an agreement” to promote 9 West. It cited a supply as saying that high-profile actual property investor Michael Shvo was a part of the buying group.
A supply outdoors the Soloviev household informed us, “If there ever was a group trying to buy 9 West, Shvo wasn’t part of it.”
But Hayden informed us, “No, there never was a deal. People call us all the time asking us if we want to sell various properties, both in New York and out west. Somebody’s probably trying to make a name for themself.”
If such a deal had been ever to occur, it will be an enormous breakthrough for the sagging investment-sale market. The tower was final appraised at $3.4 billion in 2016.
The skyscraper enjoys a mythic stature in Manhattan industrial actual property, so distinctive that it’s normally known as merely “Nine West.” Completed by the late developer Sheldon Solow, Stefan’s father, in 1972, it’s famed for its large presence on the block between Fifth and Sixth avenues, unparalleled Central Park views, and top-tier tenants.
It was additionally identified for bitter authorized battles between Solow and former tenants akin to Morgan Guaranty Trust, Avon, and Arista Records when Solow alleged that they didn’t correctly restore their areas after they moved out.
Tenants in in the present day’s extra peaceable instances embody Apollo Global Management, D1 Capital Partners, Chanel, and, most not too long ago, Loews Corp., which signed for 65,000 sq. toes in October. Rents within the 1.4 million-square-foot tower are within the $200 per sq. foot vary.
Hayden Soloviev additionally informed us that plans stay on monitor to open the tower’s controversial, tax-exempt artwork gallery to the general public — as we first reported in January.
“As we’ve stated previously, my father plans to open the gallery in the second half of 2023, when the remodeling of 9 West 57th Street finishes. The gallery will be at 9 West 57th Street,” Hayden stated.
The gallery shows masterpieces by Matisse, Giacometti, and Francis Bacon however they’re solely seen from the road. Critics have lengthy argued that as a result of the household artwork basis enjoys tax-exempt standing, the gallery needs to be open to the general public as IRS guidelines require.
