Sheldon Good to offer Sloane House for sale

Real Estate Weekly, Nov 24, 1993

The YMCA of Greater New York, Inc., has retained Sheldon Good & Company of Chicago and Edward S. Gordon Company, Inc. (ESG) to offer for sale the 14-story, 266,315 square-foot Sloane House YMCA branch al 356 West 34th Street, Manhattan, and an adjoining two-story former city YMCA headquarters building at 422 Ninth Avenue, it was announced.

The sale offering will be in the form of a sealed bid auction to take place during the first quarter of 1994.

John Preis, chief financial officer of the YMCA, said "This property disposition is the cornerstone of essential asset re-deployment in support of a strategic plan to expand the YMCA's community services throughout the five boroughs. Naturally, we continue to be very interested in selling this property to another non-profit organization, but we view this effort primarily as a real estate transaction and are enthusiastic about the auction method approach."

The neo-gothic structure, built in 1930, contains more than 1,300 rooms and provided recreational and food service facilities for residents who lived and worked in Manhattan during the Great Depression.

Later, the building was a temporary boarding home for thousands of young men in military service during World War II. Most recently, the building was used for student housing and YMCA administrative offices.

The YMCA significantly diminished operations at Sloane House during 1992 and 1993.

The building is located just a short walk from Pennsylvania Station, Herald Square and the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

Steven Good, president, Sheldon Good & Company, said "The auction method of sales creates urgency within the marketplace. With a date certain for the sale, serious prospective buyers will make themselves known."

"In addition," Good said, "the auction method, as opposed to the time-consuming traditional method of negotiated sales, compresses the marketing period. The seller avoids substantial carrying costs. These huge savings are passed along to the winning bidder."

Last September, Edward S. Gordon Company and Sheldon Good & Company conducted an auction of a $16 million real estate portfolio on behalf of Prudential Insurance Company and IBM.

Stephen B. Siegel, president, ESG, said "The overwhelming success of our last offering of a portfolio of properties is evidence of the growing demand for institutional auction service. We are confident that the auction of the Sloane House YMCA will be extremely well received by the marketplace."

The YMCA properties occupy the entire block front along Ninth Avenue between West 33rd and West 34th Streets. They are constructed of steel and concrete and faced with brown brick. It has a series of setbacks and interior courtyards which affords 'it with a very high window-to-floor area ratio.

The neo-gothic lobby is served by four passenger elevators, and a freight elevator runs from the 34th Street loading dock to the basement. The building is heated by Con Edison steam and has a minimum of window air conditioning units, with a 378-ton a/c unit serving the lower three floors.

The first floor contains a large kitchen and cafeteria with seating for 240 persons, plus five banquet rooms. The second floor contains meeting rooms, a gymnasium, billiard room and five large social rooms, three of which have fireplaces. The third floor was converted from dormitory space to YMCA general offices. The fourth through 14th floors contain 1,371 rooms. Each room measures 7 x 10 feet, with 9'9" ceilings and virtually every room in the building has a window.

Edward S. Gordon Company, Inc., a prominent commercial real estate brokerage firm, and Sheldon Good & Company, one of the nation's largest real estate auction firms, formed a joint venture earlier this year to offer, via the auction method of accelerated sales, office and industrial properties, apartment complexes, warehouse/distribution centers and leaseholds in the New York Metropolitan area on behalf of institutional sellers.