Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Prince Lumber to Move as Glass Tower Takes Over its Chelsea Home

By Mathew Katz | July 23, 2013 7:02am
  The new 12-story Prince Tower will replace the vaunted Chelsea lumber yard.
Tower to Replace Chelsea's Prince Lumber
View Full Caption

CHELSEA — A well known Chelsea lumber yard is about to be replaced by an $80 million tower of glass.

Prince Lumber, the wood yard at the corner of West 15th Street and Ninth Avenue, will soon leave the neighborhood to make way for the tower — appropriately named Prince Tower.

The lumber yard, which has been in the area since 1982, was one of the last industrial holdouts in the neighborhood — one that's now surrounded by tech firms like Google and entertainment companies like the Food Network and NY1. Its next-door neighbor is the Apple store.

The company will move up to the far end of West 47th Street later this year, staff said.

The new building was designed by the architects at Kohn Penderson Fox Associates who also designed the future Hudson Yards development — similarly made up of glass-paneled buildings.

The real-estate gurus at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank will advise the building's owners and help find tenants for the space.

The new tower in Chelsea will have about three floors of retail space, along with high-tech offices. Overall, the 12-story building will offer 172,000 square feet to prospective tenants.

Workers at the yard said that they were excited about the upcoming move.

"We've been here a long time, but the neighborhood's changed around us," said one staffer, who declined to give his name. 

The building is expected to open in January 2016.