Last week, the Sheffield on West 57th Street sold for $418 million. This week, a Curbed reader who rents in the building inquires about the situation, asking, "My question is this: Can someone familiar with this process explain what might happen in the coming months and years?" Full query after the jump; those in the know, drop a line to tips@curbed.com.
· Sheffield Building Fetches $418m [NYPost]
A Curbed reader emails:
I was hoping you might be able to help. I live in the Sheffield, which is a huge rental building on 57th Street near 8th Avenue. Several months back, I saw an article in the Post that reported that the building's management company, Rose Associates, had put it up on the auction block.Fast forward to last Thursday, when the Post reported that the building has been sold in a bidding war, and the new owner plans to turn it in to condos.
My question is this: Can someone familiar with this process explain what might happen in the coming months and years? When can we expect this conversion to actually begin to take place and what does it mean for current renters? My husband and I recently decided we wanted to stay in the building for two to three more years, and this new development is making things a bit more interesting for us.
Can any of your astute readers explain how long will we can expect to continue renting in the building? If we ultimately want to buy our apartment, might we get any sort of break on pricing since we're current tenants? Finally, can we expect that there might be plans to convert the existing apartments into new, spiffier units with kitchens and baths equipped with high-end fittings that you don't see in rental buildings?
Can you help? Have any of your readers been though this before, either as a tenant or as a developer?