Soloviev Group Named as Buyer of 24 West 57th Street Development Site

Stefan Soloviev’s Soloviev Group has been identified as the buyer of a 110,000-square-foot development site at 24 West 57th Street along Midtown’s Billionaires’ Row.

Soloviev, through the limited liability company 2457 Acquisition, bought the mid-block site that currently contains two old office buildings from APF Properties earlier this month for $67.2 million, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

The buyer was a mystery until Bloomberg reported Friday that Soloviev, which also owns the 52-story office tower across the street at 9 West 57th Street, picked it up and now plans a new project at the site, where it already owns neighboring plots.

Eastdil Secured’s Gary Phillips and Will Silverman brokered the sale. Eastdil declined to comment, while a spokesperson for Soloviev did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kenneth Aschendorf, co-founder of APF, declined to confirm Soloviev as the buyer, telling CO that “we dealt with a private individual who chooses to remain anonymous.”

It’s unclear what Soloviev’s exact plans are for the site between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas, but Soloviev CEO Michael Hershman told Bloomberg the firm is “entertaining a number of options.”

One of the firm’s most likely choices is to build a property that would include luxury condominiums, a hotel and retail space, Hershman told Bloomberg. The CEO said a decision would be made by the end of 2025.

The West 57th Street property, which had been facing foreclosure last year, is currently home to two old office buildings with ground-floor retail space, where luxury men’s clothing store Riflessi is a tenant, CO reported. The area earned the nickname Billionaires’ Row because of the ultra-tall luxury towers built there since 2010.

And it’s a busy time for the Midtown area just south of Central Park.

In October, Gary Barnett’s Extell Development bought an office building at 655 Madison Avenue from Williams Equities for nearly $160 million, with plans to turn the 24-story tower into luxury housing and retail, Bloomberg reported.

It also appeared that Barnett was plotting to take control of 24 West 57th Street when it bought APF’s defaulted $50 million loan in October, but Extell’s loan was paid off as part of the sale to Soloviev, a source previously told CO.

And in December, Zar Property NY purchased the 16-story office building at 119 West 57th Street for $27 million, as CO previously reported. The developer’s plans for the site are unclear.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.