NYU today announced that it has purchased and plans to renovate connecting, historic buildings 404 Lafayette St. and 708 Broadway, both of which are currently vacant.
The lower floors of 404 Lafayette, which is less than a 10-minute walk from the University's main athletic center (the Coles Sports and Recreation Center), will be used in the near term to fulfill a pledge made to the NYU students, faculty, and staff to provide for its fitness and recreation needs during the period of construction on the Coles facility. The new building on the Coles site will include a new state-of-the-art fitness and recreation center; after its completion, it is expected that the lower floors of 404 Lafayette St. will -- like the rest of the building -- be used for academic purposes. Coles will not be closed before the end of the 2014-15 academic year.
The buildings are in the NoHo Historic District; NYU has substantial experience renovating buildings in historic districts. The buildings total approximately 151,000 GSF; NYU purchased the buildings for $157 million.
John Beckman, NYU’s Vice President for Public Affairs, said, “In both the near and long term, this building will be important for meeting NYU’s space needs. In the relatively short term, it will provide a convenient location during the period Coles is closed to NYU students, faculty, staff, and administrators who currently use Coles for fitness and recreation. In the long term, these buildings will help NYU address some of the space needs near our Washington Square Core that cannot be entirely addressed through construction on the superblocks, as has always been envisioned in the NYU’s planning. With over 400,000 sq ft of leased space for academic facilities in Manhattan alone, this site will also allow us to consolidate the campus footprint in buildings that we own, reducing costs over time and creating more stability in our planning.”