Athena will add four floors and an atrium to the existingeight-story building at 43 W. 64th St., known both for the55-soot-tall replica of the Statue of Liberty perched on its roofand O'Neals' restaurant on the ground floor. The building islocated on a through-block site between 64th and 65th streets,Broadway and Central Park West. The redeveloped property willcontain roughly 88,000 sf of residential space and approximately12,000 sf of restaurant/retail space.

Steven A. Kohn, president of Manhattan-based real estateinvestment banking firm Sonnenblick-Goldman arranged financing forthe project, which was provided by an undisclosed domesticcommercial bank. The seller was Camron Hakim, an independent realestate investor whose portfolio of New York brownstones and smallmultifamily buildings is said to exceed 100. No brokers wereinvolved and details of the transaction have not beendisclosed.

According to Athena CEO Louis M. Dubin, the Liberty deal tookroughly six months to complete and the loft-style apartmentconfigurations are a function of the building's existing designelements. "The actual floor plate that we're creating lends itselfto expansive open spaces," Dubin tells GlobeSt.com. "The bedrooms,dens and kitchens will certainly be delineated. But we think theopen floor plan was the best way to go. Space is at a premium inNew York and people are nesting more today." The final design willhave approximately 30 units.