India's Richest Man Bought a Tribeca Building

"The former freight terminal at 11 Hubert Street in Tribeca has spent more than a decade sitting vacant. It was converted into a pair of offices and apartments in the mid-aughts, but over the years its owners had more ambitious visions - a megamansion designed by Maya Lin and William Bialosky for one. Those plans were never realized, however, and the building has remained largely as it was - a workaday industrial building worth tens of millions, a common sight in the neighborhood."

"India's richest man, Ambani oversees a huge conglomerate started by his father in the 1960s that now owns the world's largest oil refinery and also controls energy, data, and mobile networks; retail; and finance, according to the New York Times. But he's perhaps most familiar as the host of last summer's most talked-about wedding, an extravagant four-day affair that saw his son get married to heiress Radhika Merchant, with Kim and Khloé Kardashian, John Cena, Boris Johnson, Tony Blair,"

"The closing price for the building was $17 million, which is roughly what architect Winka Dubbeldam, a former owner (and currently the director of SCI-Arc), asked all the way back in 2012. But then, nothing has been done to the property since Dubbeldam turned the more than 10,000-square-foot space into two apartments and two offices with two terraces in the mid-aughts (back when architects still had quaint notions of Tribeca lofts being live/work spaces)."

The former freight terminal at 11 Hubert Street in Tribeca has sat vacant for more than a decade. The building was converted into two apartments and two offices with terraces in the mid-aughts but remained largely unchanged despite owners' ambitious plans, including a proposed megamansion by Maya Lin and William Bialosky. The property sold to RIL USA, the U.S. arm of Reliance Industries Limited led by Mukesh Ambani. The closing price was $17 million, matching an earlier asking price. Previous owners sold the building in 2014 and brought on Lin, who submitted plans to the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

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