When your office building becomes a condo tower: 75 Wall St

I was reading this article in the NYTimes the other day, about how foreigners are snapping up residences in Manhattan. The second paragraph caught my attention:

That was enough of a glimpse of New York for Mr. Timmons, a 32-year-old carpenter from County Meath, Ireland. Last summer, he put down 10 percent on a $760,000 studio under construction at 75 Wall Street.

75 Wall St? I worked in that building as a network engineering intern for many summer/winter breaks at Dresdner Bank. Surely this was a typo.

Nope.

Apparently I had missed the news on Luxist, which mentioned this back in April. Here’s the official website for 75 Wall St.

This is pretty surreal news. To think the place where I once saw what an executive top floor looked like (the faucets were gold colored and had LCD read outs for the temperature, the receptionists were models, there was a separate gourmet kitchen), where I visited my first trading floor (I didn’t know behavior like that was acceptable in a workplace), where I was in my first minor high rise fire (burning electrical stuff smells horrible - like something dying and rotting), and where I first ate in a cafeteria that one day randomly served caviar, is now closed and being converted into condos.

Very very surreal. Though I worked on just the 26th floor, and faced up Wall St, the views were still pretty awesome. (Irony: the data center on the 26th floor faced the river - meaning the servers had the best views.) And super easy access to the subway. I’d love to own a place there.

This reminds me of Season 2 of The Wire, when the underemployed dock union workers lament how their old granaries/piers/etc have been turned into luxury housing, because their industry has become irrelevant.

It’s also sort of surreal to read that a 32 year old carpenter in Ireland is buying this. Did I make the wrong career choice?

Another quote from the article:

[Nick Ayers of London]’s agent, Andrusha Bohackova of Bellmarc, helped him find a $668,000 one-bedroom condo at 230 Riverside Drive. He moved into the apartment in April and says he’s happy with his investment — for now. He hopes to sell the apartment eventually, move to France or the Amazon and live off the profits. “My money increased 100 percent by just coming over here,” he said.

Oh… right. Let’s look at how things have changed since I entered the workforce full time:

Ouchers.