Thursday, August 9, 2012

Five-and-Dime Tower to Become Luxury Condos


Vacant top floors of the Woolworth tower in New York City will become high-end residences by 2015.
It’s architecture for the 1 percent at its finest: Turning the Neo-Gothic Woolworth Building into luxury condominiums.
The top floors of the historic skyscraper in New York will be made into approximately 40 posh apartments, Michelle Higgins reports for The New York Times. In a deal closed in late July, an investment group led by Alchemy Properties purchased the top 30 floors from the Witkoff Group and Cammeby’s International, who will continue to lease office spaces to the lower 28 floors.


Frank Woolworth, the five-and-dime store magnate, commissioned Cass Gilbert to design the building to house Woolworth’s offices. When it opened in 1913, the tower—dubbed the “Cathedral of Commerce”- stood 792 feet high, making it the tallest building in the world.


Stripped of that title in 1930 after the Trump Building at 40 Wall Street opened, the Woolworth could make history again with the transformation of the cupola into penthouses. According to Alchemy Properties, those units could be some of the highest luxury-living spaces in the city.






Courtesy of Alexandra Rice, Builder Magazine