By Patrick Hedlund
The De Niro Treatment
The Fairchild, a North Tribeca condo building, has partnered with Robert De Niro’s Greenwich Hotel to give residents access to the luxury lodge’s decadent amenity offerings.
Under the agreement, Fairchild homeowners will now have access to the hotel’s thousand-square-foot fitness center and Japanese spa featuring a pool, lounge and four full-service treatment rooms.
The “Shibui Spa” also contains a shiatsu room, bathing room with a large tub for “Japanese bathing rituals,” a wet room with a shower for wraps and scrubs, and a treatment room for massages, manicures, pedicures and facial treatments.
“The luxury and elegance of Tribeca’s Greenwich Hotel is the perfect complement to the Fairchild’s classic New York style,” said Raphael De Niro, managing director of The De Niro Group, the Fairchild’s exclusive sales agent (and Robert’s son). “The privacy and comfort offered at these prestigious addresses create an incomparable lifestyle for residents.”
We didn’t know that “classic New York style” included facials and foot rubs, but there’s a reason Tribeca remains the most expensive neighborhood in the galaxy.
The Fairchild contains 21 simplex, duplex and triplex units ranging from $1.965 million to $8.995 million — De Niro fruit basket not included.
A.I.G. bailing out
Troubled insurance giant A.I.G. has agreed to sell its Lower Manhattan headquarters to an unknown buyer after getting bailed out by the federal government.
The company has struck a deal to sell its main office at 70 Pine St. and the adjacent building at 72 Wall St. after recently dealing properties in New Jersey and Japan, according to Bloomberg News. The price and the buyer were not disclosed.
The two buildings, which are connected by a skywalk, have a total of 1.05 million square feet that could reportedly be converted into offices, apartments or hotel rooms.
Last week, the New York Observer reported that an “offshore buyer” was expected to take the two properties, hinting that both a Korean and Chinese firm were working with A.I.G. to come to terms. The taking price is reportedly in the area of about $100 a square foot, on average less than half of what the buildings would have commanded in 2007. Just two years ago, 60 Wall St. sold for approximately $730 per square foot.
A.I.G. will occupy the 66-story 70 Pine St. until the end of 2010, Bloomberg reported, before moving employees to its offices at 180 Maiden Lane.
City moves on eyesore
The city has begun the process of filing a lawsuit against the owners of a South Village property that has been wilting for years on an otherwise idyllic stretch of MacDougal St.
The vacant three-story building, at 43 MacDougal St. at the corner of King St. in the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District, has remained an eyesore for decades with increasing problems related to vermin, mold and squatters on the premises.
Earlier this year, the 1846 property had its window broken and excrement smeared across the building before the Department of Housing, Preservation and Development stepped in to make the necessary repairs at the urging of the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation.
The society followed up with an inquiry to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which began fining the owners $5,000 per month for failure to voluntarily make the repairs. The owners, described as an elderly couple, have amassed a total of $15,000 in fines since February for failing to appear before the Environmental Control Board to address the situation, with another $5,000 penalty expected to follow.
“At this time, due to the absence of any apparent effort by the owner to make repairs, the owner’s complete non-responsiveness to multiple L.P.C. violations and large fines, the L.P.C. has begun the process of initiating a demolition-by-neglect lawsuit against the owners,” stated the commission’s deputy counsel, John Weiss, in a letter to G.V.S.H.P. The letter notes, however, that this type of lawsuit entails a lengthy process, including visits to the site, evaluation of existing conditions and the drafting of multiple legal documents.
“That’s really the strongest civil legal tool that they have at their disposal to get an unwilling owner to restore a landmark property,” Andrew Berman, the society’s executive director, said about the commission’s action. “Demolition-by-neglect cases have certainly had some pretty powerful results in the past.”
By levying substantial fines, the lawsuit’s goal is to either force the owners to make the appropriate repairs or sell the property. Berman said the owners have thus far not been receptive to selling, though the location would command top dollar. He added the owners have continued to pay real estate taxes despite disregarding legal obligations, creating some question over their apparent competence in adhering to city laws.
Nearby residents have been particularly active in the process, Berman added, since the building’s deteriorating conditions have affected them the most.
“Nobody wants this more than the poor people who live on that block,” he said. “They have had to deal with the vermin and smell.”
mixeduse@communitymediallc.com
