Sheldon Solow will add a 19-story residential building to his West 57th Street empire

Developer Sheldon Solow has big plans for the little office building at 7 West 57th Street. In 1974, Solow built the glassy 50-story office tower next door, at 9 West 57th, which stands out on the street for its dramatically sloping facade.

He picked up the building next door in 2005, forking over $25,550,000 for the 32-foot-wide property—and until now, the five-story brick building with Neo-Classical flourishes has remained more or less intact. (While records suggest the building dates back to the 1930s, YIMBY suspects it was actually constructed in the late 1800s—the Times, for example, notes the place was owned by a wealthy merchant whose daughter married a high-profile banker in 1898.)

Now, the building, which was ultimately converted to offices in the 1950s, has come to the end of the line: Solow plans to knock the place down, making way for a 19-story residential development, as first reported by the Real Deal. Rising 237 feet and holding just 16 apartments, the building will ultimately have 32,099 square feet of residential space, plus a 4,100 square feet of retail on the first two floors. Some of the units will also have balconies and/or roof decks, filings show.

As YIMBY points out, 7 and 9 West 59th Street are hardly Solow’s only holdings on the block: he also controls the parcels at 10, 16, and 19 West 57th Street, plus an adjacent property at 19 West 56th. The property at 16 West 57th is a relatively new addition to his holdings (he picked up the loft last May), and would allow him to build a 213,000-square-foot residential tower on the block.

• Solow files plans for 19-story resi building next to 9 West [TRD]
• Sheldon Solow Files Plans For 19-Story Building At 7 West 57th Street [YIMBY]