You may not be able to sleep there, but you can certainly break a sweat at the San Francisco Stock Exchange building at 301 Pine Street—it’s now an Equinox gym. The fitness outpost was among the earliest of these conversions, dating to 2004. The renovation maintained the 1930s-era Moderne style exterior and Yule marble facade, while swapping the brokers’ old workstations for sleek ellipticals, tech-friendly spin bikes, a yoga studio, pilates studio, juice bar, and spa.
For Equinox, the building’s prime location in San Francisco’s Financial District, known as North FiDi, is more important than its 124-year history of trading through the California gold rush and the Great Depression. Today the gym offers “convenient access for corporate clientele,” a company representative says. Once a capitalist’s temple, always a capitalist’s temple.
123 Greenwich Street, New York City
The former American Stock Exchange building—aka the Amex, once a rival of the NYSE—is now a real estate project titled 123 Greenwich Street. Headed by GHC Development, the $65 million plan to repurpose the building was announced in January 2018 as a joint venture with Clarion Partners that comprises offices, retail space, and by 2021, a high-end boutique hotel. “This is a crown jewel property with a wow factor that cannot be replicated,” says GHC’s real estate developer Allan Fried. He’s seeking office tenants and a boutique hotel that’s the right fit, offering about 174 rooms and an aesthetic “along the lines of The Beekman,” he says. “We want to retain as much of a historic perspective as possible, keeping intact the landmarked limestone exterior. For instance, the trading floor has a 60 foot ceiling height. We’re not bastardizing that. The beauty of such a space is not re-created today.”
Regardless of which brand signs on, the future hotel will be near all manner of attractions in Manhattan’s financial district, including the One World Observatory at the World Trade Center, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, Nobu Downtown, and the shops at Brookfield Place. Developers also plan to host more retail events at 123 Greenwich Street similar to last January’s “Volez, Voguez, Voyagez” exhibition for Louis Vuitton. In the future, the trading most likely to happen at this exchange will be of fashion swag at luxury product parties.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.