NEW YORK—Even for the richly endowed Museum of Modern Art, $14.5 million is a lot of money. However, in order facilitate the building of a tower on an adjacent property by the Hines development company, that is the amount it will pay the University Club in order to acquire the air rights for the space, blogger Lindsay Pollock reports. In addition, it is helped along by $125 million it received from Hines in exchange for the property and the right to complete the project.

According to a letter from University Club president George E. Pine to the club’s members, the museum paid about $11 million to the club in December. A second payment, totaling $3.6 million, will be paid to finance capital improvements to the club’s historic building.

McKim, Mead, and White, the firm responsible for the Brooklyn Museum, the original Morgan Library, and the master plan of Columbia University’s Morningside Heights campus, designed the University Club. It was completed in 1899 and will undergo extensive repairs and refurbishment using the money provided by MoMA.

Pollock also points out that the stunning $14.5 million sum is equal to a $20 admission charge for 725,000 visitors to the museum. It’s also almost enough to buy a choice Giacometti sculpture, though the museum already has plenty in its collection.

Editorial note: The article earlier described the planned tower as a MoMA project. In fact, the building its being built by development company Hines, to whom MoMA sold the property. MoMA's purchase of the University Club's air rights was a planned part of that earlier transaction.