The owners of 9 West 57th Street insist they have no plans to sell the iconic property, a major Manhattan office tower, despite a bombshell report that a deal was in the works.
“There are no plans to sell the building,” Hayden Soloviev, son and spokesman for Soloviev Group chairman Stefan Soloviev, told Realty Check.
“The news must have been confused with residential sales,” speculated Hayden Soloviev. (The Solovyov Group has in fact sold some of its luxury rental properties).
An article in The Real Deal last month set off a wild guessing game when it reported that Stefan was “finalizing a deal” to sell 9 West. He quoted a source as saying high-profile real estate investor Michael Shvo was part of the buying group.
A source outside the Solovyov family told us, “If there was ever a group looking to buy 9 West, Shvo wasn’t one of them.
But Hayden told us, “No, there was never a deal. People call us all the time asking if we want to sell various properties, both in New York and out West. Someone is probably trying to make a name for themselves.
If such a deal were to happen, it would be a huge step forward for the stalled investment sales market. The tower was last valued at $3.4 billion in 2016.
The skyscraper enjoys mythic stature in Manhattan commercial real estate, so unique that it is usually referred to simply as “Nine West.” Completed by the late developer Sheldon Solow, Stefan’s father, in 1972, it is famous for its massive presence on the block between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, its unparalleled views of Central Park and its prominent tenants.
He was also notorious for his bitter legal battles between Solow and former tenants such as the Morgan Guaranty Trust, Avon and Arista Records when Solow claimed he failed to properly restore their spaces after they moved.
Today’s quieter-time tenants include Apollo Global Management, D1 Capital Partners, Chanel, and most recently Loews Corp., which signed on for 65,000 square feet in October. Rents for the 1.4 million-square-foot tower are on the order of $200 per square foot.
Hayden Soloviev also told us that plans remain on track to open the tower’s controversial tax-free art gallery to the public, we first reported in January.
“As we previously reported, my father plans to open the gallery in the second half of 2023 when the 9 West 57th Street renovation is complete. The gallery will be at 9 West 57th Street,” Hayden said.
The gallery features masterpieces by Matisse, Giacometti and Francis Bacon, but they are only visible from the street. Critics have long argued that because the family’s art foundation enjoys tax-exempt status, the gallery should be open to the public, as required by IRS rules.
