Manhattan Office Building Goes Residential; City Encourages Neighborhood Sustainability

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

As Manhattan’s residential inventory is calling for more and more space, office building reconversion seems to be the best solution for developers. One such reconversion plan was filed with the New York State Attorney General’s office by a subsidiary of Izaki Group Investments USA, reports Crain’s New York Business.

The company paid $49.8 million for a 165,000-square-foot office building at 335-337 Broadway—marketed as 93 Worth St,—and plans to convert it into luxury housing and retail space. The project, to be designed by ODA-Architecture, is a 13-story building formerly occupied by city government offices. It will be redeveloped at roughly $320 per square foot and will include 90 apartments, six penthouses and 10,000 square feet of retail space. Doron Zwickel, executive president of CORE, the designated sales and marketing agent for this project, told Crain’s that the apartments will range from studios to four-bedroom apartments with prices from $1,250 to $2,000 per square foot.

Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has awarded 19 grants for community sustainability projects as part of the Change by Us NYC program, which was launched in July in an effort to encourage and create projects for improving the city’s five boroughs and designing a sustainable future. The grants were divided into three categories: community gardening and agriculture, composting, and tree and park stewardship. The funding totals $15,000 and was provided by the Campaign for New York’s Future and the Rockefeller Foundation. The list of projects can be found here.