New York’s famed Hit Factory to be sold as condos

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York’s Hit Factory studio, which
closed in early 2005 after being home to recording sessions by
John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Madonna and U2, is being converted
into condominiums worth more than $1 million.

Stribling Marketing Associates said the building in
Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood will be converted into
27 units, from one-bedroom apartments to penthouse duplexes
with private terraces. Prices will range from about $1.1
million to more than $4 million, the company said, adding that
the seven-story condominium is expected to open in early 2007.

The Hit Factory sign has remained over the door and the
lobby of the converted building will be decorated with gold and
platinum records recorded at the famed studio by such artists
as Paul Simon, Barbra Streisand and Bruce Springsteen.

Before it closed in 2005, the 100,000-sq-foot
(9,290-sq-metre) building on West 54th Street between Ninth and
10th Avenues had seven recording studios and five mastering
suites.

The owners of the studio never said why it closed. But
property values in the once grungy Hell’s Kitchen have soared
in recent years as the neighborhood gentrified and albums are
increasingly being recorded using cheaper digital technology.