In six months Bernard & S. Dean Levy will move from 24 East 84th Street in New York City to the third floor of 227 West 17th Street in Chelsea, trading a five-story townhouse for a 5200-square-foot loft. “The furniture will be displayed on one floor in an open setting with especially designed lighting in a neighborhood with modern furniture galleries, Williams Sonoma, Brooks Brothers, Le Pain Quotidien, and Barneys,” said Frank Levy on the phone the day after he sold the firm’s 84th Street townhouse and made arrangements to stay until the new premises are designed and built. “The offices of Google and Facebook are around the corner, and Twitter is two doors away, and the old Bell Atlantic building has been turned into expensive condos. I hope that all the people who work and live there will become our customers,” Levy said as he continued extolling the advantages of the vibrant neighborhood. “The Chelsea Market is a block away, the Metropolitan Pavilion is a block north and block east. There are museums, the Rubin and the Whitney, at the end of the High Line not far away,” he continued. He said 25 years ago he would not have considered such a move, but it is a different world today. “We don’t get much walk-in traffic anymore, and I realized when I started to exhibit at antique shows that my stuff looked so much better when you are not on top of it in our narrow building where it is hard to maneuver. After my father had a stroke six years ago, he lives three blocks away and could not manage the steps in a wheelchair.” “When a developer made us a generous offer we began looking for loft space and found it on the third floor of a building with a freight elevator where we can install proper lighting, design open displays, hold special exhibitions, have a library, and where I can have a beautifully appointed office furnished with some of my favorite antiques and with a window. My office is now in the basement,” said Levy, who…
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