You might have heard that Ian Schrager is developing a new 11-unit condominium tower above the 370-room Public Hotel at 215 Chrystie St., with pricing in the $4,000-a-square-foot range — and, we hear, soon heading upwards.
While Schrager, inventor of the boutique hotel, used to describe them as “cheap chic,” and calls this new building “refined gritty” or “tough luxe,” we noticed the new project could also be described as “shake chic.”
That’s because the massive floor-to-ceiling windows of the building designed by Herzog & de Meuron are set into the façade as if they were teak shake shingles on a beach house — each one is angled out and over the one below, thus creating a façade with great depth and visual interest.
The gray concrete building is also being purposefully imprinted with patterns from the plywood casts. “We tried a lot of different things and this looked the best,” the forever-in-blue-jeans Schrager told us.
Teak also will be used for details on the ground floor and for the private garden entrances to the lobbies and restaurants. Another private garden will be in the rear of the building, which has several setbacks for outdoor terraces.
Inside the new marketing center are full-sized versions of the condo units’ bathroom and kitchen. The bathroom as an enormous bespoke white concrete tub and sink, along with plenty of storage space behind American black walnut panels. The half-floor units’ living room and kitchen great room were made calm and sleek with smooth gray lava counters, wide white oak planks and more black walnut cabinetry.
Enormous photographs entirely wrap its walls with the units’ actual night skyline views created using drones, Schrager said.
Because the surrounding area is filled with low-rise walk-ups with the shorter Avalon Chrystie Place building to its north and the long Sara D. Roosevelt Park between Chrystie and Forsythe streets to its east, the views are “forever,” Schrager said — to the Empire State Building, One Bryant Park and beyond.
John Pawson designed the interiors and finishes, while Christian Liaigre created custom furniture for the model, which will be available for purchase by the new residents.
For now, to prevent copycreeps from stealing his ideas, Schrager is keeping the hotel details under wraps.
Nine blocks north of the actual site, we found the almost speakeasy-like door of the marketing center. It’s located on the Bowery side of Edward J. Minskoff’s office building at 51 Astor Pl. which fits into this crossroads of the East and West Villages and Noho like a reflective black glove.
Along Lafayette Street, between Broome and Grand streets, another retailer is joining the lineup that will soon include Calypso and Kate’s Paperie.
Pedro Carrillo of Keller Wiliams New York City represented the designer dusica dusica, who will be relocating from 67 Prince St. to 177 Lafayette St., where she will have a 1,200-square-foot ground floor along with 1,000 square feet in a selling basement.
Joanne Podell and Brandon Singer of Cushman & Wakefield represented the Eretz Group ownership, which had been asking rent of $200 per square foot.
The Kaufman Organization and an equity partner have hired a Savills Studley investment team to sell 27 W. 24th St. near Madison Square Park in the Flatiron-NoMad districts.
The sellers paid $55.5 million for the 11-story building at the tail end of 2012 and now expect to nearly double their money with expectations of roughly $95 million or $760 per foot for the 125,000-square-foot building.
They’ve already upped the building’s game with items including a new façade, lobby, elevator cabs, common hallways and air conditioning.
While below-market leases now make up 93 percent of the occupancy, 60 percent of those roll before December 2016, providing a new owner with lots of expected upside in the hottest leasing market in the country.
“This is the type of building that got the Midtown South party started,” said Will Silverman of Savills Studley whose team includes Woody Heller, Eric Negrin and Daniel Parker.
After Samsung toured two dozen Chelsea locations with outdoor space, we hear it has signed a 15,000-square-foot lease for the entire 7th floor of 123 W. 18th St.
Michael Leff and David Cohen of Avison Young represented the Boxee Group. This company was purchased by Samsung in July 2013, and is now located nearby at 122 W. 26th St.
Andy Udis of ABS Partners represented the building owner, Wasserstein Enterprises, which had an asking rent of $58 per square foot.
The IDEAL Academy locked up a space at 270 W. 89th St. in time for the middle and high school program to open this month.
The three-year lease included the entire 5th floor of around 7,300 square feet, along with a gym and additional mezzanine space totaling 5,500 square feet.
Steven Goldberg, executive director of B’nai Jeshurun, which owns the building, and Mitch Rubin, chairman of the board of trustees of IDEAL, handled the negotiations on behalf of their organizations.
Founder Michelle Smith started the original K-5 IDEAL School at 314 W. 91st St. in 2005 to ensure her son who has Down Syndrome would be in mainstream classes.
