Demolition is moving along rapidly at 123 West 57th Street, the site of a 26-story commercial building on Billionaires’ Row in Midtown, Manhattan. Alchemy Properties and ABR Partners closed a $120 million deal to purchase the Midtown property from Calvary Baptist Church. ABR Partners’ equity partner, Cain International, had brought on Security Benefit Life as the new lender for the project, which will yield 185,000 square feet of office space and is estimated to cost $350 million. The property is located on a plot bound by West 57th Street to the south, West 58th Street to the north, Sixth Avenue to the east, and Seventh Avenue to the west.
Recent photos show the tremendous downward progress that has occurred since our last update in March, when demolition was just getting underway on the former 16-story, 153-foot-tall Salisbury Hotel. Now only a handful of floors remain to be razed. The new tower will eventually rise between Christian de Portzamparc’s One57 and SHoP Architects‘ 111 West 57th Street.
123 West 57th Street. Photo by Michael Young
Demolition has progressed down to expose a row of giant steel trusses spanning the length of the superstructure, which can be seen from across West 57th Street. The canopy for the Salisbury Hotel is still standing beneath the sidewalk scaffolding.
123 West 57th Street. Photo by Michael Young
123 West 57th Street. Photo by Michael Young
123 West 57th Street. Photo by Michael Young
123 West 57th Street. Photo by Michael Young
The following photos show the state of work in late June. YIMBY estimates that demolition will be complete by the end of summer and the plot cleared before the end of the year.
123 West 57th Street. Photo by Michael Young
123 West 57th Street. Photo by Michael Young
There are still no official architectural renderings, a final height, or architect disclosed for the project. However, YIMBY last reported that the building would feature an auditorium. Tenants on the upper half of 123 West 57th Street will have views of Central Park to the north.
A completion date also remains unclear.
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It’s Billionaire’s Row, so it must be something tall. But, that’s just my guess.
Read the article. It clearly states that the building will be only 26 stories and encompass a paltry 185,000 sf
what a sad day when century old buildings get demolished instead of adaptive reuse.
There was no reason they couldn’t have kept the wonderful church building and either retro fitted it or built on top of it.
What a disaster.
The Calvery Baptist Church couldn’t resist the 120 MILLION BUCKS
GREED GREED GREED
People are allowed to sell their properties and make money. I am sure you have sold things for a profit as well.
you’re missing the point the CalVary Church could have easily sold the property for the same amount of money and put in the agreement to keep the building and and retro fit for future use and even kept themselves a spot in the new building.
But greed, greed , greed
Greed is a condition of the heart, not a real-estate transaction.
Don’t make the positive assertion that a Sale equals Greed. That’s a simpleton, knee-jerk approach.
There are many logically reasons to sell ones property other than, ‘greed.’
It’s spelled CALVARY.
Why only 26 floors in this location?
hey Joe how about we build a skyscraper right next to where you live and block all your sunlight and make it a super tall tower?
Would you still be wanting a taller building?
I think you would instantly change from a YIMBY to a NIMBY in about two minutes.
LVMH Tower, just down 57th, is only 24-stories, and it’s fantastic. Not everything on Billionaires’ Row has to be supertall!
An earlier study by the previous owners pitched an 1800′ tower. It would not surprise me one bit if the short proposal that we’ve heard about is not at all what actually gets built.
Uh-oh — somebody’s going to lose their views in adjacent supertalls. But no matter! — nobody lives in those buildings anyway.