Institutional Buildings Become Exclusive Condos

Two recently unveiled projects are the latest sign that the Manhattan residential development engine is beginning to crank up again - from river to river.

Hudson Street Nursing Home Soon to be The Abingdon

At 607 Hudson Street in the West Village, a red brick building that was once the Village Nursing Home is being converted to condominiums by Flank, a design and development company in Chelsea. Not long ago, 607 Hudson housed some 200 residents, but soon it will be just 10 apartments.

The century-old building at Hudson Street and West 12th Street was converted from a hotel to a nursing home in 1958. Although it was renovated in 1981, the building was no longer adequate to serve its patients and was sold in 2008.

FLAnk was able to secure construction financing from Quinlan Development Group to convert the property into 10 condos ranging from 3,300 to 9,600 square feet. The dimensions of the former nursing home, with three street frontages and four exposures, were conducive to sprawling units, as was the location, in one of the most picturesque parts of the West Village.

FLAnk plans to do a gut renovation of the property and bring condos to market in the summer of 2012.

The building will be FLAnk's third recent condo development in the West Village. In 2007 the group turned a 150-year-old church on West 4th Street into an eight-unit condo called the Novare. Completely sold, units garnered sales prices ranging from $2.4 million to $6.3 million. 

In 2009 the company built 385 West 12th Street, a luxury building with a copper facade, which has sold 11 out of its 12 units. Its 12th unit is set to come on the market this month for $7 million.

Former Salvation Army Building Getting a Makeover

18 Gramercy Park South once housed the Parkside Evangeline Residence, run by the Salvation Army, which for more than 40 years provided affordable housing for women. 

Now, what had been a 300-bedroom building will be converted into 17 condos, each of 4,500 square feet or more.

Plans call for a gut renovation of the 17-story building, and construction of 15 full-floor residences and two duplexes.

Part of the first floor and a mezzanine will be combined into one unit, while floors 16 and 17 will turn into a dramatic duplex. The full-floor, family-sized apartments will spread just over 4,500 square feet -- and buyers get a key to the very private and tranquil Gramercy Park.

The team behind the project - which also built 15 Central Park West - includes developers William and Arthur Zeckendorf and architect Robert A. M. Stern.