In a conversion of a former warehouse building, 100 new apartments are in the works.
Mr. Kazlow explained that in a conversion, the shareholders are basically exchanging their co-op shares for a condominium deed.
Often, their involvement results in a conversion, and they go from being nettlesome critics of public education to influential advocates.
Early in a conversion, it is almost a given that the sponsor will control the building's board, simply because he or she owns most of the apartments.
In a conversion, you propose that this year's endowment gift go all or in part to operating funds the charity can spend immediately.
At Firstsite, the galleries feel like leftover spaces in a conversion of an existing building, which is quite an achievement when it is a single-storey new structure on an open plot.
A genre painter from Amsterdam, de Haan had seen the new French art in Paris and, in a "conversion experience" similar to Gauguin's years earlier, had decided to redirect his career.
"Those who say, 'This is great,' and those who say, 'This is terrible.' And I've found that the hardest thing about representing tenants in a conversion is just persuading everybody to relax and be patient.
"It's quite easy to see your costs for purchasing in a conversion jump $15,000 to $30,000 over what you expected to pay," said Stephen Kliegerman, director of downtown sales for the Halstead Property Company in Manhattan.
"And for noise between flats," says Pryor. "If you live below someone who has floorboards and a small dog in a conversion it can be like Japanese water torture".
In a conversion that the developer said cost more than $30 million, the site has been reshaped into four 4,300-square-foot 4,300-square-foot 4,300-square-foott penthouses.
