NYC artists rally to save iconic space from uncertain fate after owners’ deaths: ‘It’s a cultural icon’

The fate of a massive creative space considered to be a “cornerstone” of the famed Chelsea arts district could be in jeopardy after the property was listed for sale with the deaths of its philanthropist owners.

Artists who lease studio space at the Raymond Naftali Center at 508–536 W. 26th St. in Manhattan assert late longtime landlords Raymond and Gloria Naftali vowed in their will that the site would remain available to its 250-plus artists.

But that hasn’t stopped the elderly couple’s estate from listing the building for a cool $170 million — and its tenants now fear the new owner will bring with them devastating rent hikes or knock down the structure entirely to develop more lucrative prospects such as lux condos.

“This building is so precious, it’s a cultural icon,” said Scotto Mycklebust, a tenant-artist and founder of the West Chelsea Building Artists Association, at a rally this week.

“There is nothing like it in New York City. … It’s changed everybody’s life in the art world,” he said of the space.

Raymond Naftali, a clothing-company owner, bought the property in the 1970s, and he and his wife Gloria, a contemporary-art-gallery operator, developed it over the years to support the Big Apple’s creative community, according to Artforum. Raymond died in 2003 at age 75, and Gloria, 96, passed away in 2022.

The couple’s holdings are now part of a philanthropic foundation that supports causes including fighting antisemitism, the outlet said. Raymond was a Holocaust survivor.

Lawyers representing the Naftalis’ estate did not respond to a Post request for comment. But one of the estate’s legal reps told the New York Times that the current use of the building simply is “not profitable enough.”

Judi Harvest, an artist and real-estate broker who has kept a gallery space in the 500,000-square-foot building for more than 25 years, claimed the building’s 211 tenants are not getting any bargain. But she said renting elsewhere would be even more costly — and that the building is a crucial gathering place.

“It is not affordable — minimum studio rent [in the building] is $3,000,” Harvest said. “It has never been a bargain.”

Democratic City Councilman Erik Bottcher called the building “a cornerstone of our artist community here in Chelsea.

“I don’t know that that’s necessarily true, that they could go elsewhere,” the pol said of the site’s artist tenants. “And there’s also something to be said about having a building [serve as] an ecosystem of artists. 

“They learn from each other, they collaborate with each other, they have artist showings and gallery nights and open houses where they all benefit. That’s why people come to New York City from around the world who are in the arts for buildings like this, where they have access to all these artists under one roof.”

George Scheer, director of the Elizabeth Foundation of the Arts, told The Post he hopes a nonprofit organization could swoop in to help keep artists in Chelsea. 

“Anything that enters the market is going to face market forces,” he said, noting that private investors are “going to look at a bottom line – not the mission of keeping artists in studios, employed, engaged in Manhattan, specifically in Chelsea.”

Bottcher said of the Naftalis’ foundation members, “We have let them know, in no uncertain terms, that we are going to fight any transaction that results in the displacement of the artist here.”