St. George Tower Signs Deal for 52K-SF Wellness Facility at 43 Clark Street

A new private health club and wellness facility is set to open at Brooklyn Heights’ famous St. George Tower, Commercial Observer has learned.

East Gate Investors and SC Holdings have signed a 29-year lease to open a 52,000-square-foot wellness center on the lower levels, ground floor and second floor of the St. George Tower at 43 Clark Street, according to broker Helmsley Spear.

Built in stages between 1885 and 1929, the 10-story building on the corner of Clark and Hicks streets was formerly home to the St. George Hotel, once the city’s largest hotel with 2,632 rooms at its peak, according to the building’s website.

The property, owned by the St. George Tower co-op and Grill Owners Corporation, was converted into a luxury residential co-op in 1984, and its facade was restored as recently as five years ago, Helmsley Spear said.

It’s unclear when East Gate and SC Holdings’ new health hub will open at the building, but it will be in addition to the tower’s 275 residential units.

“This facility will be a wonderful complement not only to the residential co-op, but to the entire Brooklyn Heights community,” Helmsley Spear’s Michael Dubin, who represented the co-op in the deal, said in a statement.

“The co-op envisions a high-end private health, wellness and sports facility and club that will offer a superior suite of amenities unavailable today within this vibrant Brooklyn neighborhood,” Dubin added.

The facility will also be “built around wellness, racquet sports, leisure and community,” a spokesperson for SC Holdings said.

The asking rent was unclear, but a report from the Real Estate Board of New York found retail rents in Brooklyn Heights averaged $114 per square foot in 2024 (the most recent data available).

Law firm DL Partners’ Bruce Lederman and Grace Betancourt also represented the St. George Tower co-op board in the deal, according to Helmsley Spear. It’s unclear who brokered the deal for East Gate and SC Holdings.

Lederman and spokespeople for the landlords and East Gate did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The deal comes after a complicated history for the St. George Hotel, which once occupied seven buildings and covered the entire block encompassed by Clark, Hicks, Pineapple and Henry streets, according to the building’s website.

Between 1963 and 1968, the hotel was sold several times — often under the threat of foreclosure — and was the focus of complex lawsuits and bankruptcy proceedings, the website said.

Its occupancy numbers dwindled throughout the 1970s, and the property was ultimately converted into rental apartments in the 1980s, but not without “unhappy tenants, rent strikes, lawsuits and other problems,” according to the website.

Now, the building sits next to student housing center Educational Housing Services at 55 Clark Street and a block from coffee shop Joe Coffee at 102 Hicks Street.

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