Condo Invasion?

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Look out Chelsea: Commercial condominiums are on the rise, as evidenced by the recent $100 million sale of four warehouse buildings on West 25th Street where more than 70 galleries are renting spaces. Chelsea magnate Jack Fuchs sold the buildings in January to 25th Street Art Partners, an offshoot of real-estate giant Cardinal Investments. Fuchs had previously sold a nearby parking-lot parcel where the new Chelsea Arts Tower, another commercial condo, now stands. “We’re not the ‘kick everybody out and start from scratch’ kind of guys,” says 25th Street Art managing partner Trevor Stahelski. But he confirmed that the warehouse quartet is bound for condo conversion, a disturbing development for many of the current tenants, including the four-month-old, 7,000-square-foot Arario Gallery and older ones like Betty Cunningham Gallery and Yossi Milo. At the end of their leases, they would have to either buy or get out. “I feel very nervous,” says one dealer who rents a modest-size gallery. “I certainly wouldn’t want to buy my space. I’d rather have an apartment.” Yet another building on the block (at 555) is contemplating a commercial condo conversion. Stahelski insists he’s one of the good guys. “We’re very pro-Chelsea and very pro-art.”

"Condo Invasion?" originally appeared in the March 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's March 2008 Table of Contents.