slatin report
Chelsea Arts Tower, designed by Kossar & Garry Architects, will open in January on West 25th Street.
NYC 11 06 06
THE ART OF THE ART DEALER DEAL
Beth ONeil
The developers of a glitzy new commercial gallery tower in Manhattan's gritty West Chelsea arts district say their building will help the district forestall the typical fate of edgy art-world neighborhoods. But chances are just as good that their creation could be a catalyst for pricing boho types out of this transplanted SoHo.
It’s a familiar story in once-emerging, art-driven neighborhoods. Retail rental rates move up as the residential and tourist base grows and becomes more affluent. Luxury retail chain tenants can afford the new order, while the leading-edge galleries and restaurants that helped create the draw in the first place are forced to close and migrate elsewhere. Sometimes, even those galleries that can afford to hang on relocate anyway. The mix of retailers and hordes of tourists and non-art shoppers obliterates the culturati ambience that provides an intellectual edginess and promotes a successful buzz in the airy spheres of high art. But the success of small, scrappy galleries that pay relatively low rents and can take chances on unproven talent is critical to the art world.
More than a decade ago, many galleries in SoHo, New York's legendary arts district began migrating north to West Chelsea, where the rents were affordable and there was ample, raw and gritty space in warehouses and industrial buildings; a new cultural milieu took root there in short order.
Now, the new twenty-story Chelsea Arts Tower is rising at 545 West 25th Street in the heart of what’s been dubbed “Gallery Row"; the neighborhood is home to approximately 300 small to medium-sized galleries. The tower's developers say that, for gallery owners, it offers a prophylactic solution to the cycle of neighborhood re-pricing that would inevitably force them to move yet again: Let the galleries buy their own space.
It was obvious, say the group that conceived Chelsea Arts Tower - developers Bass Associates and Young Woo & Associates along with brokers Stuart Siegel and Alan Weisman of Grubb & Ellis – that the demand from gallery owners was there. “We spent time in focus groups and ultimately determined that the market would support the building,” says Jack Guttman of Bass Associates. They have sold all but one floor, according to Siegel. Prices per square foot for one of these floors range from $650 to well over $1,000, he says.
Designed by architect Alan Garry of Kossar & Garry Architects with a lobby by renowned gallery and museum architect Richard Gluckman, Chelsea Arts Tower, which topped out earlier this year and is expected to receive its first tenants in January, is the tallest commercial building in West Chelsea, accordingt o Siegel. Open floor plates, designed specifically for gallery and artistic use, range from 3,100 to 4,700 square feet. Each floor has eleven-foot ceilings with full-height windows to allow for maximum light exposure. The concrete and glass building has three over-sized high-speed elevators (which will open horizontally), ideal for transporting contemporary mega-works. Along with the high ceilings, the builidng's minimal columns and reinforced walls are all geared to supporting and displaying oversized artwork.
The roster of blue chip dealers that have already staked their claim on space in the building is led off by Marlborough, widely recognized as one of the world’s leading contemporary art dealers, which will occupy 9,500 square feet on the first two floors of the building and is effectively the building's anchor. Marlborough, founded in 1946, will be keeping its flagship 57th Street gallery and closing one on 19th Street; it did not commit to the project until the end of 2005, well into construction. Tina Kim Fine Art, also currently located on 57th Street, has purchased the third floor, and Siegel says that a deal for a non-profit arts organization to buy the 15th floor should happen “any day.”
But the story takes an interesting twist: Fashion maven Calvin Klein has purchased the 18th floor for a reported $4 million for his new company office. Siegel claims “strong interest from other fashion entities as well.”
Is Chelsea Arts Tower a model for how gallery owners can halt the pernicious rent hikes that drive them to search for greener – or cheaper, funkier – pastures? John Cacciola owns the J. Cacciola Gallery, which was formerly located in SoHo and now sits 500 feet from the new tower. “A prestigious building coming in to house galleries is fine,” he acknowledges. “If I had the money, I would buy. They are certainly not giving it away.” Indeed, smaller galleries like Cacciola that currently rent in the neighborhood are not likely to be able to afford the tower. They hope the new model won’t drive up their rents.
The move to sell space to galleries isn't as pioneering as it might seem, say local real estate sources. The big galleries that arrived early In Chelsea made sure to buy their space rather than rent – they had learned their lesson from the SoHo experience. Already, there is a feeling in the local art scene that Chelsea will not suffer the same fate as SoHo, at least not to the same extent. Still, many galleries, large and small, are still renting, and rents are headed in only one direction for the foreseeable future.
Despite his trepidations, Cacciola also sees the benefits of the building and its ground floor tenant. “The foot traffic should be terrific for business," he says. "People will find galleries here they never knew existed.” Owen Gray, an established artist who’s long been showing his work at the Blue Mountain Gallery located on 25th Street, agreed with Cacciola. “It could attract people, but I think it will be a mixed blessing," he says. He also added that the building that previously occupied the site “was an eyesore among a row of beautiful brick buildings.”
Developer Young Woo of Young Woo & Associates says the project sprang from a similar sentiment. “We wanted the Chelsea Arts Tower to have the lighthouse effect. People can look up and say, ‘Hey, there’s the Chelsea Arts District.’ ”
Woo, Siegel and Guttman all say worries about West Chelsea becoming the next SoHo and losing its small-gallery population to rich retailers are unfounded. SoHo and West Chelsea are completely different real estate animals, they insist. “SoHo lends itself to retailers moving in. But you really have to make a point to get to West Chelsea,” Siegel says. “I’m not sure if retailers would be interested in moving to Chelsea because there isn’t as much traffic.” Woo adds that they don’t want to create another SoHo. “Galleries were buying. We listened. That’s the main difference from SoHo. We couldn’t build out, so we wanted to go up as high as we could to provide as much space as possible.”
The building in construction.