Harry Macklowe, a real estate developer who gained notoriety for his late-night demolition tactics in the ’80s, is back.
Macklowe has won a bidding war to buy a prime site on Eighth Avenue, where he plans to build a 300-unit apartment building.
The $70 million project, at Eighth and 50th Street, is the first building Macklowe will build from the ground up since the 1980s, when he was one of the most active developers on the real estate scene.
It’s unclear whether Macklowe will build condominums or rental apartments, but he paid $12 million to snare the site, sources said.
The move marks a rebound for Macklowe, who hit financial hard times in the early 1990s which forced him to give up several prime properties.
He also was forced to pay a $2.2 million fine to settle a city suit charging he tried to raze several midtown buildings without permits.
“Harry’s very much in the game again,” said one prominent real estate broker.
Macklowe, who built numerous office and residential towers during the 1980s, is best known for hiring a crew to raze several low-income apartment buildings on West 44th Street, where he planned to build a luxury hotel.
The 1985 demolition was done without the proper permit and took place in the middle of the night, just hours before a city law went into effect that would have preserved the low-income housing.
Macklowe, like many of the city’s developers, also suffered huge financial headaches brought on by the real estate recession that followed the 1987 stock market crash.
He was forced to give up several properties including Hotel Macklowe, which he erected on the controversial site on 44th Street off Sixth Avenue.
Last year, he purchased a 39-story office building at 540 Madison Ave. and a loft building at 245 Seventh Ave., which he is converting into apartments.
But his Eighth Avenue project is his most ambitious development of the 1990s. To get the site, which used to be the home of a notorious gay porn theater, he had to outbid many of the city’s top developers, including Jack Resnick and Charles Benenson.
Macklowe also is reportedly moving toward lining up some $70 million in loans he’ll need to begin construction of a luxury apartment building. Macklowe declined to comment.
Developers have been racing to build new apartment buildings to profit from the recent runup in New York real estate prices. Three other projects are either under construction or being planned within five blocks of Macklowe’s site.
Real estate experts believe that Macklowe has been able to come back partly because he was able to raise $59.1 million in cash by selling his Metropolitan Tower office condominium in 1994.
