Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group has been tapped to lead sales at 101 Franklin, the 73-unit luxury condo conversion rising over a long-vacant Tribeca office tower, with the sales team already fielding a wave of inbound buyer interest ahead of an expected launch. Senior sales director Richard Hicks says the team plans to open sales quietly once New York's Attorney General signs off on the offering plan, which is expected within a month.
According to The Real Deal, the assignment pairs Hicks with agent Tara King-Brown, both of whom bring recent Manhattan new-development track records to a project developers Skylight Real Estate Partners and Cannon Hill Capital Partners are converting from a former municipal office building. Hicks previously served as senior sales director at One High Line and as sales director at 25 Park Row in the Financial District. King-Brown led sales at 140 Jane Street, where the majority of the building's 14 units sold off floor plans, and was part of the team behind a penthouse deal there asking $88 million; she also led sales at Madison Realty Capital's 16 Fifth Avenue, now nearly 75 percent sold more than a year after launch.
A Team With a Billion-Dollar Track Record
The One High Line sales team that Hicks was part of has been named Corcoran Sunshine's sales team of the year in each of the last three years, per the same account, and that project surpassed $1 billion in sales three years after Skylight Real Estate Partners and Cannon Hill Capital Partners purchased it out of foreclosure for $900 million in 2021. One High Line's roster included a $47 million penthouse, the report notes.
King-Brown told the outlet that 101 Franklin sits between the scale of One High Line and 140 Jane Street on one end and 16 Fifth Avenue on the other, calling it a project that Tribeca's core has not seen at this scale in nearly a decade. She added that the building will offer industrial loft proportions while maintaining the views, light and amenities typical of larger condominium developments.
From Vacant Office Tower to Boutique Condo Conversion
Built in 1948, the 17-story, 205,000-square-foot office building at 250 Church Street sat vacant for nearly a decade after its former anchor tenants, the NYC Human Resources Administration and Department of Social Services, relocated to 4 World Trade Center in 2017, according to 6sqft. Columbia Property Trust had at one point planned to convert the vacant building into a boutique office property before ultimately selling the site to Skylight Real Estate Partners, Cannon Hill Capital Partners and TPG, which acquired it for roughly $100 million in 2024, per The Real Deal's reporting. That price reflected a 53 percent discount from the property's $205.5 million sale price in December 2019, in a transaction for which Philips International was the seller, as detailed by PincusCo.
New York City's 2024 City of Yes zoning reforms enabled the developers to add four stories atop the existing 17-story structure, expanding the building to 21 stories and 251,000 square feet, according to New York YIMBY. The finished tower is expected to include a mix of two-, three-, four- and five-bedroom units, with 14 units featuring private outdoor space, and will feature a hand-laid brick facade and industrial windows designed by Steven Harris Architects, with Hill West Architects serving as executive architect and Rees Roberts + Partners handling interiors. Hicks described the project as reimagining Tribeca's iconic character, and the building is expected to be completed in 2028.
Community Pushback Over Affordable Housing
Not everyone in the neighborhood has embraced the project without objection. During a March review, Manhattan Community Board 1's Land Use Committee criticized the complete lack of affordable housing in the plan, which the developer's legal team said was not financially viable for this type of conversion, according to the Tribeca Trib. To address concerns over density and the absence of affordable units, developers agreed to discuss funding local community projects, including proposed green space improvements for the nearby Friends of Barnett Newman Triangle, a public traffic island on Church Street.
Standing in 56 Leonard's Shadow
101 Franklin sits one block from 56 Leonard, the 60-story Herzog & de Meuron tower nicknamed the Jenga Building, which has counted celebrity buyers Frank Ocean and Keegan-Michael Key among its residents since sales launched there in 2013. Condos at 56 Leonard sell for roughly $3,000 to $4,000 per square foot, with units typically ranging between $2.9 million and $4.8 million, per the Commercial Observer.
101 Franklin's launch also coincides with another project in Lower Manhattan.
