By:  Hellen Zaboulani

The “boutique” tower at 125 W. 57th St. is well on its way toward its 440-foot, 26-story height after overcoming formidable setbacks.  The Calvary Baptist Church will soon have a new, larger home at the shiny new mixed-use building.

As reported by the NY Post, years ago, a new office tower was planned for the prime Billionaires’ Row Midtown Manhattan location which has been occupied and owned by the Calvary Baptist Church since 1883.  Back in 2017, the church sold its land to developers Alchemy Properties ABR Partners and Cain International for $130 million.  As part of the deal, the developers agreed to build a bigger replacement house of worship at the base of the new tower.

The developers tapped renowned architectural firm FXCollaborative to create a 26-story commercial building.  The project, however, faced more than its fair share of problems, especially when its construction lender backed out in March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic forced the city to a standstill. Eventually, another source of financing was obtained and the building was finally able to close.  The old building underwent demolition in mid-2021.

Now, the project, with an ultimate $350 million total development cost, is well underway.  In addition to the new home for the historic Calvary Baptist Church, the advancing tower will offer 7,000 square feet of retail space, and 185,000 square feet of prime Class A office space.

“Our first office floor is 180 feet in the air over the church and [7,000 square feet of] retail,” boasted Kenneth Horn, President and founder of Alchemy.  “In most mixed-use projects, it’s the reverse, with offices on lower floors and apartments on top,” Horn noted.  He said their set up, with 17 floors for offices at the top of the tower, will guarantee that the commercial space will offer open Central Park views.  The property, which sits between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, neighbors some of the most iconic residential skyscrapers including the 131-story Central Park Tower and the 84-story Steinway Tower at 111 W. 57th St.

Per the Post, the developers had planned an office tower at this site before the pandemic, and will now face the weaker post-pandemic commercial market, with vacancy levels elevated at many existing office buildings.  “We’ve done thirty residential buildings in the city and we realized this is not going to be another residential one,” Horn said, regarding the company’s decision to create a commercial tower.

“We determined very quickly that there was too much product in a limited area. But there was a scarcity of new offices and we’d do well regardless of the cycle.”  Despite the current market, he told the Post, the developers are not worried about the state-of–the-art Class A office space they will offer.  Asking rents “will definitely have three digits,” Horn noted.

“We felt that our target is hedge funds, private equity and other kinds of firms looking for floor plates of around 10,000 square feet, most with private outdoor terraces,” said Brian Ray, co-founder and managing partner of Alchemy. “This was a very complex deal even before Covid. Our partners fulfilled everything and the Baptist church are righteous people in all the right ways.”

Eric Poretsky, head of US real estate at Cain also downplayed the current weakness in commercial real estates’ expected effects on the new tower.