Cushman & Wakefield has now been exclusively retained to sell these two contiguous loft buildings at 125-127 Grand Street, which are presently located in one of the most desirable retail neighborhoods in the city, and in turn, the world. Neighboring retailers include Alexander Wang, Ted Baker, MUJI, Dolce and Gabbana, Jill Sander, Starbucks, Wells Fargo, and Topshop.
127 Grand Street was built between 1820 and 1840 making it one of the original cast iron district buildings in SoHo. Around 1850, because of its prominence in the area, the building became one of the famous meeting places of the notorious 5 Points section of lower Manhattan. Christened “Grand Street Hall,” it was a renowned meeting hall and tavern, once with 1,500 people in attendance. Its rich history, as documented in the newspapers of its day, includes sword fights, a conscription point of Civil War soldiers (1860s), a meeting hall for the first assembly of African-American waiters seeking wage increases in New York (1850s), meetings regarding the Irish riots in the Ninth Ward by The Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Friendly Club of Irish Confederates (1850s), union meetings (1850s-100s), and even hosted Charles Fairbanks, the 26th Vice President of the United States (1908). The adjacent building at 125 Grand Street was built shortly thereafter in the same style.
Dorothy and Emanuel Korn purchased these buildings in1961. The Korns were in the military surplus business and required a warehouse to house army surplus bunk beds, emergency water, military survival rations and dummy WWII issue 50-caliber training bullets. They stuffed the buildings with these hard-to-find surplus items. As their business evolved, the Korns no longer used the buildings as a warehouse and over the intervening decades they lovingly maintained and restored the property. The buildings are still owned by the Korn family.
“The buildings represent a rare opportunity to own a piece of history, and make a dramatic retail statement,” said Cushman & Wakefield’s James Nelson, who is exclusively marketing these properties with Mitchell Levine and Robert Burton. “The ground floor column free space is spectacular; as are the spacious lofts above,” added Robert Burton.
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Neighborhoods: SoHo/ Agents: Robert Burton