The Mercantile Library Building

Built in 1932 by architect Henry Otis Chapman, (the formerly the site to the home of novelist F. Hopkinson Smith) the property, then known as the Mercantile Library building is an attractive white marble low-rise commercial building found between Fifth and Madison avenues and isclose to such landmarks as Radio City Music Hall, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bryant Park.

The 25-foot-wide, historic commercial building offers immediate redevelopment possibilities, with 20,375 square feet of unused air rights. This building has it all – distinctive architecture, a core Midtown location, unused air rights, proximity to Grand Central, and it will be delivered vacant. The real value is in its re-development potential.

Moreover this property is ideal for an office building or boutique hotel conversion, the building does offer its owner to lease space at market rates. Given supply constraint in the Midtown office market and low vacancy rates, a boutique office redevelopment makes a lot of sense.

Former Interior was best described as follows; a gorgeous venue with crown moldings and polished parquet floors throughout. Spanning eight floors in total, tts ground floor retail component was occupied by a bookshop. Going up the property boasted a second floor reading room and event space, a screening room on the sixth floor, while the seventh floor was used as rental space. The third and fourth  floors were library stacks, while the fifth and sixth floors had meeting rooms and offices; with the remaining eighth floor utilized as the famed sky-lit writers’ studio.

The property was once occupied by The Center for Fiction who supports writers and promotes fiction and literature.  The Clinton Hall Association of the City of New York, a non-profit organization for literary causes, used to own the building on behalf of the Center for Fiction. Today the building is owned by Macklowe Properties who purchased the building from Sun's Acres LLC back at December 2018.

Listing Courtesy Macklowe (owner)
Listing Address: 17 East 47th Street New York, NY 10017

About the Area: 47th Street is an east–west running street between First Avenue and the West Side Highway in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Traffic runs one way along the street, from east to west, starting at the headquarters of the United Nations. The street features the Diamond District in a single block (where the street is also known as Diamond Jewelry Way) and also courses through Times Square.

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