Jarmulowsky Bank Building Sold for $36 Million

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner…!

Years of on-again-off-again antics have finally concluded at the historic Jarmulowsky Bank Building. The International Business Times is currently reporting that New York-based Equity Management (“EM”) recently sold the landmarked corner property, situated at 54 Canal Street, to DLJ Real Estate Partners for $36 million. That’s $1 million less the asking price a year ago. The seller initially purchased the 60,000 square-foot property from Cwc Inc. in 2005 for a cool $25.25 million, armed with possible plans of a posh hotel conversion. That never happened, and EM instead held onto their fallow investment through the economic downturn.

The corner-hogging 54 Canal Street was last on the chopping block in the fall of 2010, but the real estate market was still too soft and failed to fetch any buyers. Now with a new owner in DLJ, which is actually an offshoot of Credit Suisse bank, the Lower East Side can likely expect the ambitious hotel conversion project to bear fruit this time around. At least that’s the word on the street. Not too surprising.

There are also three ground-floor retail spaces with frontage on both Orchard and Canal. If we had to guess, the commercial space will become hotel bar/upscale foodie restaurant. Great.

The Jarmulowsky Bank Building is easily one of the most recognizable structures in the neighborhood. Indeed, upon completion in 1913, it was the tallest building in the area, standing alone at twelve stories. Sender Jarmulowsky had been running his eponymous financial institution since 1873, but the outbreak of World War I spelled disaster.  The German immigrant investors pulled their funds to send to relatives abroad.