Restoring for Storing

Owners of the landmark building on 37th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York say it will be restored architecturally and turned into the home of upscale retailers.

The 1905 structure by McKim, Mead & White that first housed a Tiffany & Co. store has in recent years become the site of an electronics store, a novelty store, a Subway sandwich shop and various businesses.

“We are aiming to put first-class retail in here,” said Matthew Lovallo, vp of Stahl Real Estate Co., which bought the eight-story, 145,000-square-foot building two years ago. There are roughly 8800 square feet of available real estate on the ground floor and 9500 square feet of potential selling space in the basement. The ground-floor space is carrying a $150-per-square-foot price tag.

The most important facet of the project will be the restoration of the 36-foot white marble pilasters around the base of the building, which architect Stanford White modeled on the 16th Century Palazzo Grimani in Venice after the president of Tiffany had ordered: “Build me a palace.”

New marble cladding will create five distinct shop bays along Fifth Avenue and six along 37th Street. The renovation architects are Beyer Blinder Belle.

Tiffany moved uptown to its present location in 1940, after 35 years in the 37th Street space, but the old Tiffany vault is still intact, in an impregnable subterranean chamber.