The 400,000-square-foot complex is listed for $170 million, and a sale could displace scores of artists and gallery owners, and other tenants.
One tenant wore furry clogs with black ankle socks. Another recalled keeping bees on the roof and making “High Line honey.” A third spoke of plans to invest thousands of dollars in air-conditioning.
At a tenants’ meeting earlier in January, dozens of artists and gallery owners gathered to protest the sale of their workplace: 508-534 West 26th Street. The 400,000-square-foot complex next to the High Line has long been an anchor of the West Chelsea arts district. But with the September 2022 death of its owner, the philanthropist and art collector Gloria Naftali, the building is in the hands of her estate, whose representatives say they do not consider it profitable enough to keep.
It is currently on the market for $170 million.
Dominick Porto, 91, the estate’s co-executor, and Derek Wolman, 68, its lawyer, told tenants at the meeting that revenue from the sale of the building would be used to support the activities of the Raymond and Gloria Naftali Foundation, which was established in 2008 and of which both men are trustees. The organization supports not only the arts, but also initiatives that fight antisemitism. (Mr. Naftali, Ms. Naftali’s husband, who died in 2003, was a Holocaust survivor.) Tax documents from 2023 show total foundation assets of $4.57 million.
For many tenants, the decision to sell, which was first reported in the Commercial Observer in December, means not just a painful disruption in their lives but a nail in the coffin of their neighborhood.
“Artists and the art galleries bring a lot of money to the neighborhood and enlist services which will also sadly disappear,” said Judi Harvest, the beekeeping artist, who has rented in the building since 2001 and gives her age as “over 65.” Ms. Harvest said she came to West 26th Street after being displaced from studios in TriBeCa, Chinatown and SoHo that became luxury residences.
