Wolff Building in Chelsea Hits Market, Could Fetch $170M

A 400,000-square-foot commercial building along the High Line in Chelsea that is currently home to art galleries, studios and traditional office tenants is hitting the market for the first time in five decades, Commercial Observer has learned.

Colliers (CIGI) is marketing the sale of the Manhattan property at 508-534 West 26th Street, also known as the Wolff Building, with expectations it could fetch up to $170 million. The property, which has been long owned by the estate of Gloria Naftali, is currently 94 percent occupied and features 360-degree views of the World Trade Center, Hudson Yards, Empire State Building and Hudson River, according to Colliers. 

“This is an opportunity to own nearly an entire city block in Manhattan with exceptional scale, asset quality, ceiling heights, and location directly on the High Line,” Zach Redding, managing director in Colliers’ New York capital markets group, said in a statement. 

Constructed in 1910, the building was once home to H. Wolff Book Manufacturing Company, which utilized some of the space where the High Line now sits to ship books around the country on an elevated part of the West Side rail line. The property holds historical significance architecturally as well, according to Redding, as the first in the nation to incorporate reinforced concrete.

Redding, who leads Colliers’ New York capital markets group along with Dylan Kane, noted that since 1995 the property has housed the Green Naftali Gallery featuring works by acclaimed artists such as Paul Chan, Rachel Harrison and Tony Cokes, who also have works displayed in the Museum of Modern of Art. 

The Green Naftali Gallery was founded by Gloria Naftali and art dealer Carol Green. Naftali, who is not related to the real estate family behind Naftali Group, died in 2022 at age 96. 

The Wolff Building’s collateral also includes 507 West 25th Street, a 9,900-square-foot block-through lot situated below the High Line used currently as a parking area for vintage cars and an outdoor gallery entrance.

Redding said investors might be further interested in the property following recent momentum in West Chelsea from the development of many new condominium projects in the neighborhood, along with the conversion of the Terminal Warehouse into Class A office space and the renovation of the nearby Starrett-Lehigh Building at 601 West 26th Street.

Representatives for the estate of Gloria Naftali did not immediately return a request for comment.

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com