Over the past few years, downtown Manhattan has become more expensive than uptown. A large number of these beautiful residential buildings were initially conceived as something else. They housed textiles, light manufacturing, warehouses, department stores, showrooms, and offices in their initial iteration. The first project I worked on (more than 20 years ago) was on 20th Street in Chelsea and was initially built in the late 1800s as a magnificent brick warehouse. It had exposed beams, large windows, and high ceilings. Years later, it was converted to an office building and became home to the GMHC headquarters. My client bought it from them, and we converted it into 16 residential lofts.
One of the biggest challenges we faced in the conversion was how we would design the layouts. The building had light and air on only two sides, and the floor plates were deep. Too deep. Great for a warehouse but not ideal for a residential home. Or so we thought. The depth created an area of dark space in the center of the building, and even after we filled the center with the rooms that didn’t require light and air – kitchens, bathrooms, closets, and laundry rooms, we still had a fair amount of space left over. The big question was what we would do with the remaining open space. What was their highest and best use? After some deliberation, we decided to take a bold step and pioneer a new concept. The interior home office was born. The building sold out in six weeks, and it was easy for me to explain the value of these home offices to the new owners. Most of them were artists and would use the space as an art studio. A few used them illegally as guest bedrooms. Some used them as a TV room or a den. What started out as a dead space became a sought-after feature.
A year later, around the corner, a developer bought 252 Seventh Avenue. The building was built in 1908 as a manufacturing building for textiles. Known as The Chelsea Mercantile building, it was designed with huge windows, high ceilings, and very deep floor plates. Perfect for manufacturing. The building was later converted into offices and housed The Immigration and Naturalization office. During my first few weeks in NYC, I spent hours standing in line, applying for a social security card. Ironically, I would sell more than 40 of the 352 condo units—all of them with home offices.
Fifteen years later, 5 blocks away, I would walk through 212 West 18th Street with Michael Stern. Originally built to be the home of The New York Telephone Company, the building was being used by the new owner, Verizon, to house switching stations and staff. Richard Pandiscio and I came up with a marketing campaign that embraced the architect Ralph Walker, and we named and branded the building “Walker Tower.” We designed most floor plans with home offices, and it became arguably the most expensive and successful residential building downtown. I have worked on more than 15 conversions with deep floor plates. All of them have home offices. All of them set new price records for their respective neighborhoods. 420 West Broadway in Soho, a 200 ft deep warehouse building that became the center of the New York art scene in the ’70s, housed the most prominent art galleries of its time. And there were so many others- 150 Nassau Street was headquartered The American Tract Society, 260 Park Avenue South housed the United Federation of Teachers, 31 West 21st Street was built for textile manufacturing, 141 Fifth Avenue was The Merchants Bank of New York, 650 Sixth Avenue was home to the worlds largest shoe store, just to name a few.
Every client I sold an apartment to with a home office is pleased right now. Even if they plan to return to their office full-time, they value this space and wouldn’t trade it for the world.
According to the Wall Street Journal, only 8% of workers are back at their offices as of last month. When I speak to my peers and friends, most don’t seem to be in any rush to return. They anticipate that only 25% of the workforce will be back by the end of the year, and perhaps only 50% of workers will return to “business as usual” by next summer. What are we going to do with all of these vacant office buildings? If they are beautiful pre-war buildings, we have the template, but if they aren’t glorious pre-war cast-iron loft buildings, what does their fate hold? When we face these challenges, we come up with our most innovative and creative ideas and solutions. I’ll be sharing a few of them in the weeks to come...
Let’s do this.
-Shaun