The building that formerly housed Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Club in New York City is going into foreclosure auction. The building was purchased in 2015 for $85 million and the buyers attempted to turn the building into a space for a single tenant. But the plan never came together, and owners’ lender filed foreclosure suit in 2021, according to The Real Deal.
The nine-story building at 5 East 59th Street includes 45,000 square feet of rentable commercial space, according to JLL, which is handing the foreclosure auction to take place January 17, 2024. JLL describes the building as “a rare jewel-box retail, retail plus office, or fullscale commercial redevelopment opportunity for an end user, investor or developer.”
The New York City Playboy Club was originally open from 1962 to 1986. In 2018, the Playboy Club briefly tried to reopen at a different location to “try to recapture the cachet of the original 1960s image,” according to Top Ten Real Estate Deals. But after much ridicule, closed less than a year later.
Greg Zimmerman is senior contributing editor for FacilitiesNet.com and Building Operating Management magazine.
