"People paid about $30 per sf in 1993 for retail, now rates are in excess of $300 per sf today," Propp explained. Rates for housing have also gone much higher.
Henry M. Buhl, founder of the SoHo/Tribeca Partnership says that his organization is not 'really in the real estate business," working rather to help the homeless in the community, but even he has been a part of the real estate shift in the area. "We did have a condo building that was an old shoe factory that we developed that was very successful. The 4,200 sf lofts sold out. There were 30-foot ceilings wine cellars in the basement. The top two floors had titanium like the planned Downtown Guggenheim. We got $1,200 per sf for the condo penthouses and $600 per sf downstairs."
Even in industrial holdouts such as the area just south of Broome, building conversions are yielding higher rents with office tenants. Jeffrey F. Freidus, president of JEM Realty, which owns 12 buildings, noted the shift in his commentary. "We've found it easier to get offices to take the full floors and then we can get about $37 per sf where we were getting $12 per sf before." He cites extensive renovations to the increases.
It was 30 years ago that the issue of artist residences was the hot issue in SoHo. As Buhl pointed out this is something no one talks about much anymore. Much of this, as became evident through the panelists' comments, is simply the result of artists being forced out of the neighborhood by rising costs. Ironically, most credit the increased desirability of property in SoHo with the rising fame of the area as a haven for the cutting-edge creative world. Now it is becoming increasingly the face of corporate America as hotels move in and offices take space in the old studios.
Mike Zaleski, of Zaleski Properties, the program co-chair of the chapter here asked the panelists if they'd found that in the growing changes in the community if large companies such as Chase and other banks were making their way into available SoHo office space. Propp fielded the question noting that as of yet the space available in most buildings is too small to attract such large tenants. "The largest space we have is 95,000 sf and it's taken by a children's book company," he noted.
Buhl also noted that new construction is rarely seen in the area because of the Landmark Commission. "They make it very difficult, that's why you mostly see redevelopment," he said. "For 30 Crosby St. we had to go through the Landmark Commission and they said we had to keep the façade. It's hard to get new projects going there."
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