Savanna Fund Files Permits to Demolish Billionaires’ Row Building
500-foot tall massing model depicted at the site. Image courtesy of CityRealty
New York City-based real estate private equity firm Savanna Fund has filed permits with the Department of Buildings to demolish a 12-story, 36,000-square-foot office building at 106 West 56th Street. No plans for the 5,000-square-foot lot have been announced, but its location along Billionaires’ Row and three blocks south of Central Park makes it well suited for another slender residential or hotel tower. The 50-foot by 100-foot lot is zoned at one of the city’s highest as-of-right densities and could therefore yield a building of roughly 80,000 square feet of zoning area without any development rights transfers. Above 350 feet in height, north facing spaces would have partial views of Central Park.
The current site
The nine-story, red-brick building was built in 1927 for the fraternity Phi Gamma Delta Club. A limestone carving of their coat of arms still hangs above the center, second-story window. According to the club’s website, the building originally held 106 hotel rooms, a dining room, two lounges, a men’s bar, exercise facilities, and a library. It was sold in 1962 and has since served as the offices of America Magazine, a weekly Jesuit publication. The building sits across from the Le Parker Meridien Hotel and West 57th Street by Hilton Club.
Currently, Savanna has a boutique office building under construction at 540 West 26th Street in West Chelsea and has drawn up plans for a mixed-use tower at 141 Willoughby Street in Downtown Brooklyn.
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