The tower project, originally announced by Zwirner in 2018 and scheduled to open by 2020, was delayed at first because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and again when developer Uri Chaitchik of Casco Development failed to secure additional financing. In late July, Zwirner told the New York Times he was abandoning long-held plans for a new five-storey, $50m headquarters in a Renzo Piano-designed residential tower being built at 540 West 21st Street.
But more interesting are the insights they offer into the high costs and higher stakes of competing at the top of the private art market. These are unusual blows to one of the largest and most smoothly run art businesses in the world, and they have incited plenty of trade gossip. So, it was doubly shocking when news broke that David Zwirner, one of the most prominent dealers in history, lost both a long-planned, multimillion-dollar Manhattan expansion as well as a major artist to a rival within the space of six weeks. Successful art dealing often comes down to astute management of real estate and supply.
