Real Estate

Leonard is the new Broadway with developers building big

Some dream of making it to Broadway. But for many developers, the real dream is to get off Broadway and land on Leonard.

At least that’s the case for developers like Steven Della Salla, managing principal at Bizzi & Partners Development. When Bizzi took over TriBeCa’s 350 Broadway to turn the former office building into condos, Della Salla decided to forgo a Broadway address in favor of a Leonard Street one.

“For the American buyer, Leonard is a much trendier, cooler street than Broadway,” says Della Salla. “For the foreign buyer it might be different.”

But, essentially, Della Salla says Leonard Street can mean anything — from The Financial District to the Upper West Side. Hence the birth of The Leonard, at 101 Leonard St instead of 350 Broadway.

And Bizzi isn’t the only developer to forsake a Broadway address  for one on Leonard Street. The Peebles Corporation is turning 346 Broadway — a McKim, Mead & White-designed 13-story building with both Broadway and Leonard Street entrances — into 108 Leonard, which will consist of “110 to 140 condo units,” according to the CEO of the Peebles Corporation, Don Peebles.

“We are considering a five-star plus boutique hotel of between 50 and 75 suites. There are currently 150 parking spaces and we will retain many of them so that the majority of the homes have parking spaces.”

As for The Leonard, the 66-unit building (with 2,800 square feet of ground floor retail space) started sales this summer, and it’s now almost 90 percent in contract. The remaining five units start at$3.055 million and go up to $7.5 million for a penthouse with a private loft on the roof.

Did the decision to change the building’s lobby and address have anything to do with wanting to piggyback on the success of 56 Leonard? The 60 story, Herzog & de Meuron-designed tower is clearly a hit — with 90 percent of its units sold, total sales approaching $1 billion and where listings are fetching an average of $3,265 per square foot, according to Streeteasy.

“We bought before they actually launched their sales and marketing,” says Della Salla. But, he adds, “it doesn’t hurt that they were making this spectacular building down the block.”

Peebles is slightly more explicit: “Leonard is definitely the hot address, and 56 Leonard elevated the street even more. What we’re going to be doing at 346 Broadway [aka 108 Leonard] is elevate the area with prewar grandeur… It’s a prewar alternative to 56 Leonard.”