Face-lift hints at future for 579 Fifth

Axel Stawski’s office building at 579 Fifth Ave. has quietly undergone an entire artistic and mechanical transformation into a sleek modern boutique property.

Kohn Pederson Fox designed the upgrades to the 1954-era Emery Roth & Sons-designed building at the southwest corner of W. 47th St. that is known for its wedding cake setbacks and horizontal white brick façade.

That brick has now been covered with a low-iron glass with a Polar White interlayer, giving it a glossy sheen.

But the most noticeable change to eagle-eyed passersby will be that the architects removed the large vertical white limestone slab at the edge of the façade and created continuous glass corner offices. CBRE is marketing the few available floors.

The Bank Leumi retail storefront is also getting a face-lift that will show more glass and be hospitable toward a fashion tenant when the bank’s lease ends in a few years.

Inside, the lobby has been enlarged and everything — including the concierge desk — completely covered in a rusticated Italian Solar Grey marble with polished floors. Elevator cabs, hallways and other upgrades were also made to the building that is focusing on upgrading tenancies from tiny jewelers to full-floor office users.

“Axel enjoyed working with KPF on 505 Fifth,” said Faith Ryan, director of management and leasing for Stawski Partners about their ground up building on the northeast corner of E. 42nd St.

“Even though the reworking of 579 Fifth Ave. was a ‘small’ project of 150,000 square feet, KPF worked on it with as great a degree of professionalism and with the same eye for elegance/quality as they did with their original design of 505 Fifth.”

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We’ve learned that David Tawfik of Princeton International Properties has signed a contract to pay about $105 million for Park House at 104 W. 40th St. by Bryant Park. The deal works out to just under $500 per square foot for the 220,000-square-foot building.

Sources said current owners, Savanna, gave the sales assignment to Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies of Eastdil, who brought it to market in early August. Among others, Tawfik owns Tower 52 at 150 E. 52nd St; 650 First Ave.; and 232 Madison Ave. Princeton was founded in 1982 by his father, Albert, who died in May at the age of 86.

Eastdil had sold Savanna ING’s defaulted debt about two years ago and later arranged a deal with owner Myers Mermel to transfer the keys. Savanna completed a capital improvement program and boosted occupancy to 70 percent.

CBRE offers available spaces with rents on CoStar lists ranging from the high $40s to mid-$60s a square foot.