The Suite Life--20's Style
Now, the developers of Barbizon/63, The Olcott, 110 CentralPark South, Sutton East Condominiums, Windsor Park and The Stanhope are looking to hit the same suite spot.
These six former boutique hotels were built within five years of one another, in the late 1920s, in a lavish Art Deco style favored by the "it" architects of the day (including Rosario Candela and James Carpenter). The buildings went on to attract celebrities including Dorothy Parker, Greta Garbo and Grace Kelly.
Today, the former hotels are well on their way to becoming residential buildings that will maintain their historic facades.
"It's not a landmark building, so theoretically we could have torn down the building, but we liked it," says developer Stephen Glascock of 110 Central Park South, a co-op building with condo bylaws, which he is working on with his partner and wife, architect Barbara van Beuren.
Originally built in 1927 by James Carpenter as The Navarro, a residential hotel, and most recently home to the Intercontinental Hotel, the building is now 63 residences, ranging in price from $1.6 million to $14.5 million. Seventy-five percent of the units have sold.
CONVERT ME
Classic hotels naturally lend themselves to residential conversions for a variety of reasons, including their dramatic lobbies, stellar views (many are located around Central Park) and, of course, history.
Challenges for hotel conversions come with choosing how to break up the units, figuring out how best to add kitchens (and the requisite Bosch appliances) when no gas lines exist, and deciding whether to adhere to or deviate from the classic design. Smack in the midst of a New York gone ga-ga over glass, or perhaps in reaction to it, most of the developers who are converting old hotels have chosen to remain true to the original design.
"We went with a classic Art Deco prewar style, as opposed to Contemporary with lots of glass and metal," Glascock says. "Art Deco ... bridges the Contemporary, clean modern look and the prewar."
Andres Escobar, the interior designer behind The Olcott, a 162-unit condo conversion of a 1925 hotel on West 72nd Street near Central Park West, agrees. For The Olcott, he's chosen to move away from the more cutting-edge design he employed at The Gretsch building in Williamsburg and the Chelsea Club, and instead opted for a modern Art Deco interpretation. The building includes a lobby filled with black marble columns, terrazzo flooring inlaid with zinc and the restoration of original brass elevator doors.
"It has all the charm of the past with the functionality and cleanliness of what you can get today," says Colby Webb, a 32-year-old advertising account director who purchased a one-bedroom condo at The Olcott.
Webb notes that her old building was also a "classic prewar building." But like a great majority of prewar buildings in Manhattan, it was also a co-op. The Olcott, like all six conversions mentioned above save The Stanhope, will be condos or co-ops with condo rules, making them more attractive because of their lack of restrictions.
"There was a time when, if you wanted to live in a prewar, you had to live in a co-op. But now, since everything is condo, there's a built-in audience for someone who wants to live in a fabulous prewar building that's not a co-op," says Iva Spitzer, an executive vice president at Corcoran Group Marketing who is selling The Olcott.
GLITZY PAST
"I bought [in Barbizon/63] because I was hoping there were some old skeletons in the closet," laughs Richard Thompson, former CEO of Meow Mix, who purchased three units so his three children would have a place to stay when they visited New York.
Even compared to most hotel conversions, Barbizon/63, located on East 63rd Street at Lexington Avenue, has a rather rich history. Built in 1928 as The Barbizon Hotel, it was solely for single women who'd just landed in New York. It was the first home to Greta Garbo, Liza Minnelli and Candice Bergen, to name just a few.
"In the '20s, women didn't live in their own apartments," says Nancy Ruddy of Cetra/Ruddy, the architects behind the 65-unit gut-renovation. "If you wanted to meet with a gentleman friend, there were these large living rooms and there were chaperones who sat there."
The conversion will include Bolivian rosewood floors, hand-cut marble mosaics in the powder rooms and kitchens, and amenities such as a 4,300-square-foot entertaining space complete with grand piano.
"It's the mini-Plaza, look at the roof line with all the cool architectural features," says Thompson.
Mini being the operative word. Most of these six buildings contain around 100 units, making them all the more coveted - the Windsor Park, a 1926 Candela original on West 58th Street that's currently being worked on by architecture firm Gwathmey Siegel, has 103 condo units, more than 70 percent of which are sold - especially because developers are running out of old hotels to convert. With the hotel market in New York on the upswing again, it appears there is more money to be made by buying hotels and maintaining them as hotels.
"When hotels were trending downward and residences were trending upward it was natural to convert," says Mark Gordon, the head of real-estate investment bank Sonnenblick Goldman's International Lodging and Leisure group. "But the trend has reversed."
And as more and more classic hotels are being reborn, there are fewer and fewer buildings left to convert.
"It's hard to find a prewar building that you can vacate," says Kenneth Horn of Alchemy Properties, which is renovating the once extended-stay Sutton Hotel on East 56th Street into Sutton East Condominiums, 76 one- and two-bedroom residences with prices averaging $1.2 million.
Horn, like the developers of all these conversions, is adding amenities like Sub-Zero refrigerators and a health club. The key, he believes, is marrying the building's prewar boutique feel with today's luxury flourishes.
"This is very hard to duplicate in new construction," he says. "And there are buyers who don't want to live in a 300-unit building."
First built: 1926
History: The hotel was designed by renowned architect Rosario Candela. Guests included John F. Kennedy Jr. Marlene Dietrich's pal Greta Keller sang in the lounge regularly.
Details: The 26 half- and full-floor homes, designed by John Simpson, architect of the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace, will be about 4,000 square feet and 8,000 square feet respectively.
Cost: Half-floor residences begin at $10.5 million. The penthouse, with 7,000 square feet of interior space and 5,000 square feet of outdoor space, is $47.5 million.
Contact: Sharon Baum and Deborah Grubman, The Corcoran Group, (212) 836-1036 and (212) 836-1055.
First built: 1927
History: Originally The Navarro, a hotel/apartment building created by famed architect James Carpenter, the address later went through incarnations as both Ritz-Carlton and InterContinental hotels. Residents of The Navarro included Random House founder Bennett Cerf.
Details: The 25-story building, currently being designed by architect Costas Kondylis, will become 63 one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units, including five penthouses, with condo bylaws. Buyers include music mogul Tommy Mottola and his pop princess Thalia.
Cost: $1.6 million to $14.5 million.
Contact: Stacy Greenfield, The Sunshine Group, (212) 974-0110
First built: 1925
History: The original hotel/apartment building included a restaurant/cocktail lounge, banquet room and barbershop. Residents included Tiny Tim and actor Martin Balsam.
Details: The 162 one-, two- and three-bedroom condos are being designed by Andres Escobar and H. Thomas O'Hara.
Cost: One-bedrooms begin at $725,000, two-bedrooms at $1.3 million and three-bedrooms at $2.6 million.
Contact: Cathleen Carmody, The Corcoran Group, (212) 721-4482
First built: 1926
History: The hotel was the work of Rosario Candela and was owned for years by New York hotel operator and real-estate mogul Leona Helmsley.
Details: The 103 studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments are being designed by Gwathmey Siegel.
Cost: $715,000 to $3.5 million.
Contact: Efi Tessler and Avi Voda, Prudential Douglas Elliman, (212) 582-2444
First built: 1929
History: Nathanael West, Dorothy Parker, Michael Caine and Bette Midler all lived in the former extended-stay Sutton Hotel.
Details: The 76 one- and two-bedroom units are being developed by Alchemy Properties, which has worked on boutique buildings like the Lion's Head in Chelsea.
The cost: Units average $1.2 million, with 28 below $1 million.
Contact: Wendy Triffon, Alchemy Properties, (212) 732-0372
First built: 1928
History: The Barbizon was constructed as a hotel for single women new to the city. Grace Kelly, Greta Garbo, Liza Minnelli and Candice Bergen were among its residents.
Details: The 65 condos designed by architects Cetra/Ruddy will range from 670-square-foot one-bedrooms to 5,000-square-foot penthouses.
Cost: $1 million to $14 million.
Contact: Danielle Englebardt, Prudential Douglas Elliman, (212) 308-6363