Macklowe’s One Wall Street conversion switches course, will be predominantly condos

Harry Macklowe is eschewing rentals and relying more on condos at his One Wall Street conversion, the developer told Bloomberg this week. Early last year, the city’s Landmarks Commission approved the conversion of the 50-story Art Deco skyscraper into a residential building with retail at the base. At that time, plans called for 65 percent of the new units to be rentals, with a smaller portion being converted to condos.

Macklowe is now thinking of going just the route of condos and may avoid offering any of the units as rentals, according to Bloomberg. He’s also decided to make a greater investment in the building, and in turn take out a smaller loan for the conversion.

The glut of luxury rentals and condos is certainly playing on Macklowe’s mind, according to Bloomberg, but the developer told the publication that it is about finding the right price range for the luxury listings that would make them more appealing to buyers. Using an example, he said demand for properties in the $10,000 to $12,000 per square foot range was going down, but that the $2,500 to $3,000 per square foot was surging.

As a result, the lower portion of One Wall Street will have apartments asking between $2,000 to $2,500 per square foot, and units in the top portion of the building will range from $2,800 to $3,000 per square, which is 10 percent less than similar nearby developments (on average), Macklowe told Bloomberg.

Already, Whole Foods has signed on for 44,000 square feet of space at the building spread out over three floors. There are still two more retail spots open at the building offering 90,000 square feet of space in total.

The project came about after Macklowe Properties acquired the building from Bank of New York Mellon for $585 million in 2014. SLCE Architects have been tapped to design the conversion.

UPDATE: A previous version of this article stated that Robert A.M. Stern Architects were part of the design team. They are no longer attached to the project.

• More Condos, Less Debt in Macklowe's New Wall Street Game Plan [Bloomberg]
• One Wall Street Conversion Gets Landmarks Approval [Curbed]
• Whole Foods's Newest Home Will be at One Wall Street [Curbed]