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Billionaire real estate mogul Charles Cohen is looking to convert one of his ailing Midtown office buildings into a residential property, according to an application filed with the city this week.
Cohen Bros. Realty has struggled to retain tenants across its portfolio, including at 623 Fifth Ave. — a 38-story tower that connects to the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship at 611 Fifth Ave. — where it now wants to take advantage of a push by city and state officials to relieve the worsening housing crisis and resuscitate struggling business districts by turning largely vacant office spaces into apartments.
Cohen Bros., which owns nine Midtown office towers and is reportedly delinquent on more than $600 million worth of loans across a handful of its buildings, is proposing to convert the upper floors of the roughly 499,100-square-foot tower, between 49th and 50th streets, into about 172 2,000-square-foot units.
The application has the support of the Department of City Planning, which is in the midst of its own rezoning initiative, called the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, that would allow for speedier and more seamless transitions like the one pitched for 623 Fifth Ave.
Saks, a posh department store chain, occupies both the entirety of 611 Fifth Ave. — a 10-story building that was erected in the early 1920s and designated a landmark in 1984 — as well as the lower 10 floors of the adjoining tower, which was completed in 1988. The tower’s original tenant was Swiss Bank, until it vacated in 2006, and currently only 12% of the roughly 499,100-square-foot building is occupied, according to the application.
As part of the conversion, there would be no changes to the landmarked Saks Fifth Avenue building — on top of which Hudson’s Bay Co. had proposed putting a casino. It’s unclear where that idea now stands, and Hudson’s Bay did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Saks would also continue to occupy the lower 10 floors of the tower, which sits across the street from Rockefeller Center and next to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. After the conversion, however, it would contain about 344,300 square feet of residential space; a total of 578,500 square feet across both buildings would remain department store space, according to the application.
And if all goes according to plan, construction would take about 18 months and wrap in 2026. Tenants with current leases that don’t expire until at least 2027 would be relocated elsewhere. David Fogel, executive vice president of the prominent, family-run Cohen Bros., could not provide a cost estimate for the conversion and said the units would be condos. He declined to comment further on the application.
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Julianne Cuba , 2024-05-15 19:44:02
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