Biggest office conversion in US history begins renting apartments for upwards of $10k a month in NYC
The biggest office-to-residential conversion in the country has begin renting its first apartments, but they don't come cheap.
The former JPMorgan building, originally constructed to house computers, is offering apartments in Manhattan's Financial District for upwards of $10,000 a month.
The pricey rental units range from $3,000 a month studios to $10,000 a month for three-bedroom apartments.
More expensive apartments on the buildings highest floors, where rent will reach $12,000, will also hit the market in coming months.
However, around a quarter of the building's apartments will be offered at reduced rates via a government scheme that gives developers tax breaks in exchange for affordable housing when the project completes.
Renovation of the million-square-foot bank building on Water Street, just four blocks from Battery Park in downtown New York City, took place over two years.
10 further stories were added to the skyscraper, as well as tenant parking and a rooftop.
Luxury amenities for residents include pickleball courts, co-working spaces, an outdoor pool, a gym, and a spa.
Much of the external brickwork has been removed and replaced with windows
'Creating light and air where there isn't any, and creating the number of units that were created, it's just mind boggling,' Nathan Berman, founder of Metro Loft, one of the project's developers, told Bloomberg of the project.
'Downstairs, they've created, basically, a private Chelsea Piers.'
The 55-year-old behemoth was mostly used to process checks and other paperwork for Manufacturers Hanover Trust, and then used by back-office staff for its successor bank JP Morgan Chase.
Much of the external brickwork, which was designed to be impersonal, had to be removed and replaced with windows for the 1,300 brand new apartments.
The initial design limited windows because the computers it was designed to house had such intense air conditioning needs that windows were considered 'distinct liabilities,' plus 'computers cannot look out of windows,' a 1970 Architectural Forum article said of the building at the time.
An outdoor swimming pool is among the luxury amenities available to residents
The former JPMorgan building, originally constructed to house computers, is now apartments
Renderings of a golf range at the redeveloped Water Street building
The building fell to just 10 percent occupancy after the pandemic, after former tenants such as The Daily News moved out.
'The building had to either be torn down or retrofitted for a new life,' former broker for the building, Bradley Gerla, told Bloomberg.
'There was no reuse for that building.
'Everything has some value, but the highest value was to convert it to a residential building,' he added.
The conversion is part of a wider trend in Manhattan's Financial District, with former bank offices increasingly being converted to flash apartments and condos with cinemas, pools and bowling alleys.
The exodus of banks first began after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001 and picked up pace as homeworking exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It rendered a lot of expensive office space obsolete.
In 2000, banks occupied 5 million square feet on Wall Street. Today, it is just a couple of hundred thousand, real-estate broker John Santora told the Wall Street Journal.
Now many buildings, including One Wall Street, 20 Broad Street and Pearl House, are owned and rented residential homes.
One of the most luxurious repurposed buildings is the iconic Art Deco skyscraper, One Wall Street.
The 1.25 million square foot building designed by Ralph Walker in 1931 as the Irving Trust headquarters has now been made into 566 high-end homes that have hit the market for up to $12.75 million.
