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The 1898 building at 108 Leonard Street was designed, in part, by McKim, Mead & White, and will become a condo with more than 160 units. Credit: Rendering by DBOX
By Jane Margolies
Nov. 23, 2018
Plenty of historic office buildings have been converted to residential use in recent years — especially in Lower Manhattan, where some of the oldest commercial structures in New York stand. The latest building to undergo such a transformation is the Clock Tower Building, which is now being called 108 Leonard.
Completed in 1898 as the headquarters of the New York Life Insurance Company, the 16-story building occupies an entire city block with its grandest portion, fronting on Broadway, designed by McKim, Mead & White — the starchitects of their day.
The white marble facade is lavished with lion heads, balustrades and other flourishes drawn from Italian Renaissance palazzos, and the whole thing is topped by a three-story pavilion with a mechanical timepiece that gave the structure its nickname.
An image from the book, ”McKim, Meade & White: Selected Works, 1879-1915,” Princeton Architectural Press, 2018.
The building is a significant, massive work of art,” said John H. Beyer, a founding partner of the architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle, which has worked on restoring several McKim, Mead & White structures. His practice has been involved in the restoration and renovation of 108 Leonard, which will yield more than 160 condos and a raft of amenities, from an underground motor court to a rooftop Zen garden.
The former banking hall is being marketed as a restaurant or event space. Credit: Rendering by DBOX
Not that the process has been easy.
After New York Life moved to Madison Square in the late 1920s, the City of New York acquired the building, also known as 346 Broadway, to house courts and government agencies.
By the time a partnership involving developers Elad Group and the Peebles Corporation bought the building in 2013 for $145 million, it had been declared a national and city landmark. New York City’s Landmark Preservation Commission extended landmark status to 10 distinct portions of the interior, including the president’s suite on the fourth floor, with its nearly 500-square-foot anteroom paneled in gray-veined marble.
In its reimagining of most of the interior for residential use, Beyer Blinder Belle decided to relocate the anteroom. With the blessing of the landmarks commission, the developers had the room dismantled and the pieces sent off-site for refurbishment. They will be returned to the building and fitted back together — but on the ground level, where the space will be “a library/working area /entertaining area,” said Samantha Sax, chief marketing and design officer for Elad.
Under city law, an interior landmark is supposed to be open or accessible to the general public regularly. But the ante room and some other interior landmark spaces will only be open to residents.
The Leonard Street entrance to the building will lead to a double-height lobby. Credit: Rendering by DBOX
The Clock Tower in particular has been a sticking point for the developers, because they have sought to turn it, with its landmark mechanical works, into a condo unit. Their plan would involve electrifying the iconic four-sided timepiece — which was rewound weekly by a small, dedicated group of clock aficionados after the clock was restored in 1980 — so no one need intrude on what would be a private home.
While the Landmarks Preservation Commission supports the plan, opponents to the clock tower conversion sued and won a 2016 court ruling that said the mechanical works must be kept in their original condition. The city’s law department has appealed on behalf of the landmarks commission, which has also agreed to let the developers turn the rest of the elaborately paneled president’s suite into a private apartment.
A historic depiction of the building when it was headquarters for New York Life Insurance. Credit: The New York Public Library/Picture Collection
Meanwhile, work continues. The exterior restoration firm HLZA used nylon brushes to scrub the facade of the building, which extends east to Lafayette Street, south to Catherine Lane, and north to Leonard Street, where the building’s main entrance will be. They replaced damaged portions of the roof parapet, repaired scars left after old metal fire escapes were removed (in favor of new code-compliant staircase cores) and restored the fierce-looking 7,000-pound eagles that perch on the roof.
Inside, on the ground level, restoration has just begun and will include the removal of paint that at some point had been slathered all over marble columns and pilasters.
In the great rooms of most apartments, tray ceilings with cove lighting will make high ceilings seem even higher. Credit: Rendering by DBOX
On the floors above, space is being divided into apartments — with ceiling heights that far exceed the norm. On most floors they range from over nine and a half feet to over 14 feet, and Jeffrey Beers International, which is in charge of interior design, is adding tray ceilings with cove lighting in nearly all units, which is sure to make them look even higher. In the most luxurious apartments, on the top three floors, the ceilings can be up to 15 feet, and most units have terraces.
Sales began in February, and buyers should be able to begin moving in the spring of 2019, according to Ms. Sax. Units range from $1.435 million for a one-bedroom to over $20 million for a 5-bedroom, 6-bath triplex penthouse — and a chance to own a piece of New York history.
On Labor Day weekend, Don Peebles, Washington native and the founder and chairman of a multibillion-dollar real estate development company, hosted a charity benefit at his 10-acre estate here.
The former whaling village is part of New York’s Hamptons, the affluent beach community on Long Island that has been attracting wealthy summer residents for decades.
Against a backdrop of serenading Juilliard School violinists, a mix of celebrities and business executives mingled under an illuminated tent on a property fronted by a wrought-iron gate and entered through an alley of oak trees.
The fundraiser was to benefit Give Back for Special Equestrians, an organization that provides therapeutic horseback riding and equine-assisted scholarships for children and veterans with disabilities, including paralysis and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Peebles and his wife, Katrina, were drawn to the charity, in part, because of their teenage daughter, Chloe, who is an avid horseback rider.
“It’s an enormous amount of work to organize, but it’s a labor of love for us,” said Peebles, 58, the son of a mechanic, who has built a real estate empire that includes a $5 billion portfolio of condo projects, hotels and office buildings.
The event raised nearly $50,000 for the charity and illustrates Peebles’s rise from modest roots in Washington to power broker in elite social circles and the competitive world of real estate.
The benefit also put his Hamptons home on display. He and his wife have listed the estate for sale through Douglas Elliman for $10 million.
The 7,140-square-foot residence was designed with Gilded Age amenities such as French doors that open to wrought-iron Juliet balconies and a Versailles-style double staircase off the back of the home that overlooks a large manicured lawn. The property includes three fireplaces, a pool and two guesthouses.
The couple purchased the six-bedroom home in 2007 for $5.3 million and say they plan to buy a smaller Hamptons property closer to the ocean when it sells.
“We’ve built a life in the Hamptons with our family and don’t plan to leave,” said Peebles, who shuttles to Sag Harbor by helicopter from the family’s Manhattan townhouse or by private plane from homes in Washington and Florida.
The property’s appeal goes beyond summer, said Katrina Peebles, a former public relations executive Peebles met in Washington and married in 1992. She’s principal and creative director at Peebles Corp.
“Fall in the Hamptons has always been more about family time for us, and less about socializing or parties,” she said, recalling family softball and football games played on the lawn.
“We love cooking Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners here,” she said, pointing to the large French country kitchen with copper sinks on the home’s lower level. “It was designed with a chef in mind, with two big islands and multiple ovens and counter space.
Affordable-housing units
Peebles recently opened an office in the District, run by his 24-year-old son, R. Donahue Peebles III. He said the company plans to invest $1 billion in the D.C. market.
The company is about to break ground on a nearly 250,000-square-foot mixed-use project in the Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood.
The development at 901 Fifth St. NW will include the 176-room SLS Hotel, an adjacent 45-unit condo building and 10,000 square feet of retail space. As part of getting the development approved, the company agreed to build 61 units of affordable housing off-site.
“I’ve watched D.C. evolve into a world-class city, as opposed to just the nation’s capital,” he said.
“There’s more energy now, and that makes it an important place for us to target.”
Peebles grew up in the District’s Petworth neighborhood until age 8, when he moved with his mother to Detroit after his parents divorced. But the family eventually resettled in the District.
He dropped out of Rutgers after a year of pre-med studies to work as a real estate agent and property appraiser. His mother, who was 19 when Peebles was born, worked in real estate after her divorce, giving him early industry insight.
The 7,140-square-foot residence was designed with Gilded Age amenities such as French doors that open to wrought-iron Juliet balconies and a Versailles-style double staircase off the back of the home that overlooks a large manicured lawn. (Rise Media)
His real estate experience caught the eye of then-D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, who appointed him chairman of the city’s real estate tax appeals board in 1984. Peebles, 24 at the time, said he benefited greatly from Berry’s mentorship.
“He opened doors for people like me at that time, when the doors of opportunity were closed for many African Americans in D.C.,” he said.
In 1986, still in his early 20s, Peebles started his career as a developer. His first project was a commercial office building in Anacostia, a once-bustling area that had endured years of neglect.
The project was a success and made Peebles an instant millionaire. It also led to the purchase of his first home: a $1 million property in the District’s Embassy Row.
After a $48 million office-building deal fell through in 1998, Peebles moved to Miami.
His redevelopment of the Royal Palm Crowne Plaza Resort, a 420-room hotel in Miami Beach, became the nation’s first major hotel developed and owned by an African American.
His company is now one of the largest black-owned real estate development firms in the country.
Political aspirations
Years of political and corporate connections have helped fuel Peebles’s ascent. A congressional page in high school who interned for then-U.S. Reps. Ron Dellums (D-Calif.) and Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), Peebles became a staff aide for then-Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) before college.
Peebles has used his influence and wealth — estimated to be more than $700 million by Forbes magazine — to raise money for politicians including Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
He twice served on President Obama’s national finance committee and is a former chairman of the board of directors of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
Peebles, author of two popular books on wealth and investing, and a regular on cable television, is mulling his own bid for public office.
“I haven’t ruled out politics,” Peebles said. “I grew up in D.C., and my goals were formulated there, so I’ve been engaged in politics all of my life.”
He’s contemplating a run for mayor of New York, a campaign he considered last year after consulting with former Obama aides and pollsters who worked for former mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“My interest would only be in a place where you could be transformative, and I think that’s at the chief executive level,” he said.
A fundraiser to benefit Give Back for Special Equestrians, an organization that provides therapeutic horseback riding and equine-assisted scholarships for children and veterans with disabilities, was held at the Pebbleses’ Hamptons estate over Labor Day weekend. (D.Gonzalez for Rob Rich)
Meanwhile, the Peebleses are enjoying their getaway in the Hamptons.
The home was designed by Peter Cook, a Hamptons architect who has created several celebrity homes on the East End.
Peebles initially rented the property in 2004, before purchasing it in 2007.
The layouts of the rooms inside the home “are exceptionally well thought out and rather old school,” Katrina Peebles said. The main floor includes the formal dining room, with French doors on either end, the drawing room, a solarium and a large foyer.
The living room has furnishings from interior designer Todd Hase, including two gray mohair sofas. “I call it the tangerine room,” Katrina said, referring to the walls, which are painted in orange hues. She recently turned the space into a TV room after hiding a plasma TV disguised as art above the fireplace. “The interior stylings reflect a clean and very contemporary feel,” she said.
In the foyer, a walk through double French entry doors reveals views of the grounds and gardens behind the main house. A large charcoal figure painting hangs above small antique tables that rest between two French-style chairs covered in Scalamandre fabric. “The decor is me having fun with scale and pattern,” she said.
The solarium opens directly onto the back deck and gardens. The couple use the space for entertaining because it allows for indoor and outdoor living. The solarium has recently been redecorated to include Baxter sofas by designer Jonathan Adler. Katrina said she removed a whole suite of French, silk-covered armless chairs and settees “because there were complaints about the lack of comfort.”
The recreation room, with a full-length, handcrafted billiards table is on the home’s lower level.
By Rebecca Cooper – Senior Staff Reporter, Washington Business Journal
Plans for D.C.’s SLS Hotel, the first for the upscale brand in this market, are finally taking shape.
Developer Peebles Corp. plans to break ground on the 175-room hotel at Fifth and Eye streets NW this fall, according to Donahue Peebles III, senior associate of development. If all goes according to plan, it would open in late 2020.
We’re also getting more details about the food and beverage offerings. The SLS Hotel D.C. will feature Japanese restaurant Katsuya from noted Master Sushi Chef Katsuya Uechi, while the lobby will have a cocktail bar modeled after Dandelyan in London’s Mondrian Hotel, Peebles said. SLS parent SBE Group also owns the Mondrian and the Dandelyan concept. Dandelyan was named the world’s best cocktail bar in 2017 at the annual 2017 Spirited Awards.
The project includes 175 hotel rooms, 45 for-sale condominium units, 10,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space and a rooftop pool and lounge area. There may also be a restaurant of some kind on the rooftop but that has not been finalized, Peebles said.
The condo owners will have access to all of the SLS Hotel’s amenities, from room service to housekeeping to pool access. The building will also have a dedicated area on the roof for condo residents.
SLS Hotels, in Miami, Beverly Hills and Las Vegas, are stylish and high-energy. Peebles said he expects the property bring a new level of hospitality to the District.
"D.C. is chomping at the bit for something like this," said Peebles, who recently relocated from his native New York to D.C. to live full time. "Look at how successful The Line Hotel is, and placemaking feat that was. We think that we’re going to take their baton and carry it forward in Mount Vernon Triangle."
Peebles is in the process of selecting a general contractor for the $50 million, eight-story hotel. The design, from Italian architect Piero Lissoni, is sleek, with modern furniture, artwork and light fixtures. Renderings show a dramatic rooftop, including an infinity pool that appears to have a fire pit in the middle of it.
The SLS will join a number of new buzzy hotels in the Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood that sits just east of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The D.C. area’s first Tru by Hilton is planned for 925 Fifth St. NW, and Douglas Development also plans to build a hotel, which may fly an AC by Marriott flag, at Sixth and K streets NW. Developer Habte Sequar has also floated plans to build a 200-room hotel at Third and K streets NW.
The SLS project — the first major one the younger Peebles, son of Peebles founder R. Donahue Peebles Jr., has led — has been a long time coming. The company won the right to develop the hotel on the city-owned lot in 2014, but it had eyed the site since D.C. first issued a request for proposals back in 2007.
"This has been a long time in the making. It's been 11 years since we had our eyes set on this parking lot at 5th and Eye," Peebles said. "I was still in college when we started working on this. So I'm excited. When you work on something for a really long time it's a real point of pride to have it move forward."
As part of Peebles' agreement with the D.C. government, the company is also building 31 affordable housing units offsite in Anacostia. The developer will also be required to build another 30 units at a to-be-determined location. The Anacostia piece will also break ground this fall.
One of the most influential African American businessmen, Don Peebles, is an inspiration to many people around the world. He is a real estate developer, a successful entrepreneur, author and the official owner of the Peebles Corporation. With a net worth of around $700M, Mr. Peebles has undoubtedly made a benchmark you can follow for a successful path in business.
Early In Life, His Rise And The First Deal
He was a Rutgers University drop out planning to become a physician to help people in need. During his small duration in college, Peebles was already earning a considerable amount of money-all thanks to his inspiration in real estate business, his mother, Ruth Yvonne Willoughby. During his time at school, he also developed a strong work ethic which according to him — he gained through assisting his father who was a car mechanic at the time.
After his decision to leave college, he started his firm in Washington DC. His first input in the business world came in 1982 where he made some useful connections. Marion Barry, the notable mayor of Washington DC at the time, saw the potential in Don and gave him the opportunity to increase his influence.
The mayor helped him secure a position in the city tax appeal board. Don who was 23 at that point of time, learned a lot of tactics and gained some valuable information which made him the chairman of the board after just a year. That was just a start to one of the most influential and successful careers paths that must be taken as an example by both modern and future entrepreneurs.
The first deal he made was in a commercial district where he worked as a broker. He resolved a quarrel on a project where the seller was demanding a sum of $150,000 more than what the buyer was willing to pay. According to the owner of Peebles Corporation, he learned a lot from his first deal especially concerning the areas where you have to listen to both the parties for securing a successful deal.
The Breakthrough Deal
According to Mr., Peebles, the deal that taught him to move forward and the other essentials required for a successful deal is the Royal Palm Deal. He bid for the agreement in 1996 where he successfully secured it. It was a considerable risk as the property was full of contaminated soil required a hefty sum of $80 million to be spent on. That was because of the extremely deteriorating condition of the site. The deal required a lot of patience — another lesson and virtue that young entrepreneurs need to build on!
A Lesson from Peebles Corporation
Peebles is like a traditional development company which has a knack for taking big risks. The Royal Palm Hotel and the Bath Club deals are examples of some of the risks taken by Don on his way to success. There are special evaluations done before investment to see if it will be successful or not. In case of a loss, the company doesn’t look back which is a valuable lesson for any initial investor.
The respectful business personality has turned out to be a motivational figure who aims to provide more opportunities to the underappreciated minorities in his business ventures. Anyone individual who dreams to achieve a lot in the world can look up to Don Peebles as someone who despite all odds, is now an inch closer to becoming a billionaire. You can learn more about his successful life in his book, ‘The Peebles Principles’ which gives everyone the opportunity to learn more about securing a winning mentality in life.
A rendering of the proposed $1.2-billion Angels Landing skyscraper complex on Bunker Hill that would feature hotels, residences and shops. (Handel Architiects)
By Roger Vincent, Staff Writer
Even in an era of mega real estate developments in downtown Los Angeles, the Angels Landing proposal stands out.
On a steep, barren hillside next to the landmark Angels Flight railway, developers plan to erect a $1.2-billion residential, hotel and retail complex anchored by a skyscraper of at least 80 stories that would be one of the tallest buildings west of the Mississippi River.
The process could take several years, but the developers, a trio of minority-owned firms, plan to file an application with the city next month to start the official approval process. The City Council has already granted them an exclusive negotiating agreement to develop the city-controlled 2.2-acre site at Fourth and Hill streets.
Their proposal in December won a city competition among would-be developers who coveted the opportunity to build a large-scale project in the heart of downtown.
"It's basically a neighborhood within a building," said developer Don Peebles, chairman of New York-based Peebles Corp. "It's the wave of the future for urban living."
A rendering of the Angels Landing project and the adjacent Angels Flight railway as seen from Hill Street. (Handel Architiects)
The mixed-use concept for Angels Landing, which includes apartments, condominiums, restaurants and an elementary school, is a dramatic departure from the downtown L.A. skyscraper building boom of the 1980s and early 1990s that exclusively pumped out fancy office towers.
The Angels Landing site originally was expected to hold the third office skyscraper in California Plaza, where the second of two towers was completed in 1992. By that time, however, downtown was substantially oversupplied with offices and new development came to a halt.
The office market is still soft, but demand for housing downtown has jumped in the last 15 years as thousands of new apartments and condominiums have helped transform much of downtown from a business park into a neighborhood where people live, shop for groceries and walk to outdoor cafes.
But while Bunker Hill has top-flight cultural institutions such as Walt Disney Concert Hall and is a destination for about 40,000 office workers each weekday, it has few residents compared with other parts of downtown.
Angels Landing and a $1-billion dollar development called the Grand are poised to dramatically change the Bunker Hill vibe.
The Grand, designed by architect Frank Gehry, will be an open-air complex of apartments, condominiums, movie theaters, restaurants and shops that promises to enliven a city block across from Gehry's Disney Concert Hall that has been mostly dead for half a century.
Work on the project at Grand Avenue and First Street by developer Related Cos. is set to begin in the fall.
A panoramic rendering of the Angels Landing complex. (Handel Architiects)
A few blocks south is the Angels Landing site, unoccupied save for occasional visits by flocks of goats brought in to chew weeds and brush off of the precipitous hillside. It was historically part of the business district but has been vacant for decades after the city cleared Bunker Hill for urban renewal.
Filling in those two big gaps with blockbuster developments will transform Bunker Hill, office landlord Christopher Rising said.
"There's going to be some 'there' there," said Rising, president of Rising Realty Partners.
His firm owns one of the California Plaza office skyscrapers and competed for the Angels Landing site but lost to Peebles, MacFarlane Partners of San Francisco and New York-based Claridge Properties.
"I'm a huge proponent of what they are doing," Rising said of the trio's proposal. "We also felt that the site needed residential" development.
The right design could open up the top of Bunker Hill, he said, which is difficult to reach on foot from the Metro Station at the corner of the development site at Fourth and Hill streets — unless you pay $1 to ride the Angels Flight cable-driven railway.
"It's very hostile to pedestrians right now," Rising said.
That challenging topography can be turned into an asset for Angels Landing, architect Glenn Rescalvo of Handel Architects said. His plan calls for terraces, passageways, ramps, stairs, escalators and elevators to make it easy for people to move around or hang out.
"We want to make the site as permeable as possible," he said. "You could enter from different points and reach all the other locations."
Buildings would fill only half the site, leaving room outdoors for landscaped public terraces including one overlooking Angels Flight railway midway up its path.
Above underground parking and lower-level shops and restaurants would be two towers.
The shorter tower of about 27 stories would house a charter elementary school and a 289-room Mondrian hotel with a rooftop pool and bar.
The main tower would reach a minimum of 80 stories and include a more luxurious 192-room SLS hotel with its own swimming pool. Above that would be 425 upscale apartments along with some subsidized affordable units. The top floors would hold 250 condominiums — and another swimming pool.
Technically the tallest building in L.A. would still be the 73-story Wilshire Grand Center, which reaches a height of 1,100 feet with the help of a spire on top.
As planned, Angels Landing would be 1,020 feet tall, but its top floor penthouses, Recalvo said, would be higher than the highest occupied floor of the Wilshire Grand, Recalvo said.
The plans are still tentative, however, and the temptation to seize bragging rights tantalizes the developers.
"The tallest? We are striving for it. We definitely want to be able to say that," said co-developer Victor MacFarlane, chairman of MacFarlane Partners.
As currently proposed, however, Angels Landing has maxed out the available density allowed for the site and the developers seem content with boasting that they will have the highest roof line in the West, a distinction now applied to U.S. Bank Tower, technically the second-tallest building in the city.
MacFarlane is already building a $400-million residential development a block away on Fifth Street, an apartment and retail complex that includes 660 apartments and a 24-story tower that will overlook Pershing Square.
He predicts that residents who move there or to Angels Landing will be young professionals and empty nesters who want to live in an urban setting but don't seek the more lively entertainment-oriented district growing around Staples Center and L.A. Live, where two other $1-billion mixed-use projects are being completed.
Financing to build Angels Landing should be available through conventional sources, said MacFarlane, who develops property on behalf of pension funds and other large institutions.
But the real estate market as been on the upswing for several years so it may be a while before big-money backers jump in, he said.
"It's not going to be financed in this cycle," MacFarlane said, "unless this cycle breaks all kinds of length records. We are three to four years from breaking ground."
Major projects such as the Grand and Metropolis, which is nearing completion north of L.A. Live, often take many years to execute, however.
Rendering of a landscaped plaza at the project. (Handel Architiects)
"Angels Landing is like any other mega project," downtown real estate consultant Hal Bastian said. "It will take more time to [get to] construction than anybody would expect — and it will get done."
To start Angels Landing it will cost as much as $40 million just to buy the land and go through the design, approval and permit process, MacFarlane said. Construction would take an additional 41 months, perhaps putting completion around late 2024.
"Realistically," he said speaking of the timing, "these big projects take what they take."
An image from the book, ”McKim, Meade & White: Selected Works, 1879-1915,” Princeton Architectural Press, 2018.
