The Bowery Savings Bank building is headed to auction in a showy spectacle that its owner is hoping results in a big-figure sale. The sale of 130 Bowery is not distressed, though the property did begin foreclosure proceedings back in 2011. Rather, as Bloomberg reports, it’s motivated by the soft real estate market that’s inspiring brokers to try something new.
Paramount Realty and Atelier WM, the former of which auctioned off Donald Trump’s childhood home in Queens, have teamed up to auction the 32,000-square-foot property designed by Gilded Age architect Stanford White. It’s currently home to high-end event space Capitale, but the owners are receptive to delivering the property tenantless so it can take on a new life as, say, a high-end boutique or food hall. UPDATE: A rep for Capitale has reached out to contest that the property can be delivered vacant, saying that the event space has a valid lease through 2032.
The Chinatown bank building itself is a stunner, with a 100-foot mosaic floored passageway that leads into a grand hall adorned with an amber glass dome, terrazzo flooring, and Corinthian columns.
Potential bidders will have an opportunity to tour the property before submitting written bids and a $1 million deposit before the auction deadline of April 30. The property will be sold in a live auction-house style auction if more than three serious bids are received. And what a show it will be: Wendy Maitland of Atelier WM has also hired curator Rachel Vancelette to stage an exhibition in the building of works by modern and contemporary artists with ties to the area.
Some of those artworks will be sold through a digital auction, and others will be auctioned live on March 13 with a portion of proceeds going to No Kid Hungry were poised to be sold at an auction at Capitale on March 13, but the spokesperson for Capitale says the event will no longer be happening. Maitland is hoping the art auction helps to emphasize the positive nature of the building’s sale, which she expects could pull in some $50 million.
“The connotation of an auction of a property is that it’s a fire sale, but this is quite the opposite,” Vancelette told Bloomberg. “The owners are like art collectors. The building itself is a work of art. They’re now ready to pass it along to its next owner, whom they would like to see as someone who appreciates its history and pedigree.”
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