News

Source: New York Post

October 17, 2016

You Can Rent a Former Governor's Office Right Now

You may not be able to attend the preeminent Gov. Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner on Thursday night as Timothy Cardinal Dolan referees, roasts and sits between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton, but you can certainly rent the former offices of the powerful New York politician who lost his own 1928 run for the White House.

A 3,698-square-foot portion of the second floor of 80 Eighth Ave. includes Smith’s sun-drenched offices with the original woodwork, detailed crown moldings, tin ceilings, a fireplace and arched stone walls — all still intact.

The building was developed in the heyday of the Roaring Twenties on the northeast corner of West 14th Street with the office space designed for, and occupied by, Smith, who left his Albany post in January 1929, after losing his presidential bid. The year 1930 is carved into the center of the ornate fireplace mantel.

Matthew Mandell of Newmark Holdings has the in-house listing and will be renovating the offices to become a modern prebuilt while highlighting the original classic elements. The asking rent is $65 per square foot.

The building lies at the crossroads of Chelsea and Greenwich Village. Smith belonged to the board of his good friend James Riordan’s New York County Bank, which had developed its ornate granite offices at 300 W. 14th St. (now residences) on the opposite southwest corner of the intersection to serve the nearby Meatpacking District.

But Riordan was busted by Black Tuesday margin calls and, with the bank’s finances a shambles and its stock unredeemable, he killed himself on Friday, Nov. 8, 1929.

Smith will be celebrated at the Waldorf Astoria as a poor Irish Catholic immigrant who was a champion of American dreams and values.