Call the Po Po, Ho!

Back in the day, the Lower East Side was hoppin' with some crazy characters. Infamous from landmarks like Five Points, Doyers Street (known as "Blood Alley" due to heavy gang activity) and the constant re-shifting of impoverished / overpopulated buildings, it seems only logical that the city of New York in the late 1800s would have no other choice but to go over the top and build a grandiose police house. Makes sense. Totally...

Flash to the 1970s. New York City is broke and starts selling off its assets to cover its bankrupt behind. One of the many government buildings being sold was the run down 240 Centre Street Police Building. 10+ years after its sale, the building is transformed and sold as apartment units in 1987 to the paying public.

What made this building so special and so unique, as an apartment building, was its built in horse stables, gigantic gymnasium and training facility, scores of storage facilities for evidence and arsenal, and of course its regal structure and main entrance (if those walls could talk).
  

While the building was subdivided into the usual 1, 2 and 3 bedroom money makers, the one unit that stands above the others is the gymnasium masterpiece.

It was sold for just over $2 million in the late 80s, but took over $18 million to renovate it to its current, and somewhat secretive condition. The top floor apartment sprawls across the structure. While not the biggest apartment in New York City, it certainly is one of the most unique. Measuring in at over 6,000 square feet with 4 bedrooms - the price focus of the apartment is the living room, which was the main gymnasium room of the police building. It's a 60'x40' room, a size that equals or surpasses most single family residential plots in Greater New York. And its ceilings? OMG! 25 foot vaulted ceilings, with skylights. Can we talk?

The apartment was owned by former Bear Stearns Chief Operating Officer, Alvin Einbender. It was put on the market once his company went belly-up for $25 million, in 2009. No doubt he hit the, once very exclusive, Gold Bar club at the base of the building many times during his tenure as a resident.