Kheel Tower

Aaron Kheel emigrated to the United States from Russia in 1883 at the age of 19 and made a name for himself in the fur industry before entering real estate. When he died in 1942, he owned several large buildings in Midtown, with Kheel Tower chief among them.

Kheel constructed Kheel Tower in 1926 in a blend of the Gothic Revival and Art Deco styles to cater to furriers and other businesses in New York's Garment District, including Kheel Furs. The building featured multiple setbacks with ornate terracotta parapets, a dramatic vaulted lobby, four elevator banks, twenty-two 3,500 sq. ft. factory floors with 11 foot ceilings, and four large retail spaces on the ground floor.

From 1926 until the mid 1970s, the building housed many of the largest names in fur as well as diverse businesses including dentists, business schools, and many others. After Aaron Kheel's death, the building passed on to a partnership of his children, including Theodore Kheel, the renowned attorney and labor mediator. As the fur industry declined, the family later decided to convert the factories into rentals, and eventually into a condominium building.

After the condominium conversion was successfully completed, the new owners organized to form a board of managers and identified capital improvements to be made to modernize systems and restore character. A first project removed dropped-ceilings which had been added to the building's foyer to restore it to its original vaulted art deco grandeur. Shortly thereafter, the three operational elevators and other building infrastructure such as the boiler were completely replaced. A new roof was installed, the entire façade was repointed, and the architectural setbacks were restored with new railings and brickwork.

The building continues to invest in the building's existing character and beauty, while at the same time adding modern conveniences and functionality. Owners throughout the building have beautifully updated their apartments, including several combined units and the spectacular duplex penthouses and terraced apartments on the upper floors.

In the mid-2000s, ownership of the building was successfully transitioned to a new non-profit which could act as a suitable sponsor for a new offering plan. The 1991 plan was updated, and marketing of the units commenced to the existing tenants and others outside of the building. In 2007, the conversion finally went ahead, with many existing tenants choosing to participate and buying into the building for the first time.

The offering plan reflected the building's layout from the time of the rental conversion, with four large one bedrooms on floors 2 to 6, a mixture of one bedrooms and studios from 7 to 21, and three large duplexes on floors 22 & 23.

Many unit owners immediately undertook modernizing renovations, almost universally restoring the dropped ceilings to their eleven foot potential and introducing other modern features.

As the fur industry declined in New York, Kheel Tower increasingly struggled to maintain full occupancy. Arthur Kheel had passed in the 40s and left the building to a partnership of his children and their descendants. After a brief experiment in converting to general office space, the remaining partners converted the building to rentals in 1976.

The conversion bore many of the hallmarks fashionable at the time, including dropped ceilings to increase energy efficiency. Condo and co-op conversions became increasingly popular in New York City in the late 70s and 80s, and led to a major increase in middle class home ownership in the city. However the building's owners had successfully secured two tax abatements from the city in exchange for regulating rent on many of the units in the building, which prevented a condo conversion until after the tax benefit was exhausted.

In 1991, an initial offering plan was defined and filed with the city. However things went awry when it was discovered that the tax abatements were not fully exhausted, which led to censure from the city and a significant delay in converting the rentals.

Kheel Tower's lot was originally three lots, each with tenements and other structures built on them. The three lots were sold together at auction in 1914 to settle a law suit, around the same time that the IRT was being extended from Penn Station down 7th avenue to South Ferry.

Across 28th Street to the North, 333 7th Avenue was built in 1920 and retains its historical slightly pre-art deco character. The original tenement structures across 7th Avenue to the West were razed to make way for FIT in the sixties, with FIT being roughly capped in height for the foreseeable future to preserve views.

On the Northwest corner of the intersection, the original buildings from the late 19th century were demolished in 2018 to make way for a new 11 floor mixed use building, which is expected to be completed in 2021 and bring additional retail space to the block at street level.