By Mariel S. Clark
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — Two former American Stock Exchange buildings in the heart of the Financial District will soon become shops, a high-end hotel and luxury apartment building, according to reports.
Investor and philanthropist Michael Steinhardt and his partner Allan Fried bought the two buildings, located at 22 Thames Street and 86 Trinity Place, for $65 million in cash in February, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Trinity Place building once housed a trading floor but had been largely vacant since 2008 when the American Stock Exchange merged with the New York Stock Exchange and the floor moved to 11 Wall Street, according to Real Estate Weekly.
Steinhardt and Fried plan to renovate it into a retail complex and 174-room boutique hotel, the Journal reported.
The Thames building will likely be torn down to make way for a 60-story luxury apartment building, according to the paper.
The two buildings are located one block south of the World Trade Center site in an area that has begun to show signs of life after struggling during the economic collapse, the Journal reported.