685 Fifth Avenue

Office Portion of 20-Story 685 Fifth Avenue Getting 90-Key Boutique Hotel Conversion & Expansion, Midtown

In April, news broke that Istanbul-based Gulaylar Group entered into contract to acquire the entire 90,000-square-foot office portion of the 20-story, 115,000-square-foot multi-use commercial building at 685 Fifth Avenue, on the corner of East 54th Street in Midtown. The deal includes the development rights to vertically expand the building by five stories. Those air rights were made available after property owners General Growth Properties and Thor Equities repositioned the building’s three stories of retail space, which now measures 23,400 square feet and is being made into Coach’s flagship store. Now, Gulaylar has disclosed plans to convert the office portion they are buying, along with the future expansion, into a 90-key boutique hotel, The Real Deal Reports. Five hotel chains, including Oetker Collection, AccorHotels, and LVMH’s Cheval Blanc, are currently in negotiations with the developer. The building’s remaining office tenant is moving out in August. Walter Marin’s Midtown-based Marin Architects is the architect of record for the expansion.




3365 Cruger Avenue, image via Google Maps

Permits Filed: 3365 Cruger Avenue, Allerton

The neighborhoods north of Bronx Park remain bastions of small, market-rate development. Many of the builders are Albanian and based nearby in Morris Park, an East Bronx enclave populated by Albanians, Latinos, and Italians. One of those projects was filed yesterday at 3365 Cruger Avenue in Allerton, a mostly Puerto Rican neighborhood in the northeastern part of the borough.

Read More

Site Prep Underway for 15-Story, 323-Unit Residential Complex at 241 West 28th Street, Chelsea

The ubiquitous forest green fence, a herald of impending construction, has gone up around a mid-block parking lot in Chelsea, at 241 West 28th Street. The 29,326-square-foot, 150-foot-wide lot, which stretches between West 28th and West 29th streets, and will accommodate twin 15-story, 165-foot-tall buildings, each one aligned along its respective street. The 314,013-square-foot complex is set to feature a 6,094-square-foot commercial component topped by 252,191 square feet of apartments. Given its 323-unit count, each apartment would average 781 square feet. The project is being developed by Edison Properties, with Hunter Roberts Construction Group as the general contractor.

Read More