AIG Building Could Soon Be Luxury Condos

In an ironic twist of fate, New York’s AIG building at 70 Pine Street will soon be converted to luxury condos.  The developer, Young Woo of Youngwoo & Associates, purchased the downtown building in May 2008 for $150 million and plans to turn the top 40 stories of the 66-story building into luxury residences.

“If we can create that perfect trend lifestyle for this building, for our targeted audience, we are not afraid to achieve $2,000 a square foot,” Woo said.

Although, this may be an overly optimistic target, one thing is for sure: there will be an upside.  According to the Wall Street Journal, the conversion to residential condos could equate to a $600,000 profit for each unit sold, assuming $1,000 sq/ft. basis.

Rob Stevenson, an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton, says that “any selling price north of $1,000 per square foot would drive more than $500 per square foot of pure profits (after selling costs) according to our educated ‘guestimates,’” .

The Art Deco building is the fifth tallest building in New York and had been owned by AIG since 1976 before changing ownership last year .