Levien & Company constructs 8,400 s/f store for Sherry-Lehman - $5m project.

Levien & Company has completed the $5 million construction of a new 8,400 s/f store for wine merchant Sherry-Lehmann at 505 Park Ave., on the northeast corner of East 59th Street, according to Kenneth Levien, president of the project management company. The store, described by Zagat's as "a wine aficionado's paradise," was established in 1934 and had been at Madison Ave. and East 61st St. for the past 59 years. "We needed more space and a better layout from which to operate," said Michael Aaron, chairman of Sherry-Lehmann. Levien & Company's Daphne Poser, who served as project manager, said the new store "blends the old-world charm of the former location, including lots of wood paneling and custom wood fixtures for displaying their enormous selection of wines and spirits, with such modern conveniences as a material lift to move some of the stores' 59,000 bottles from the climate controlled wine storage room in the cellar to the street level store." The new location also has a tasting room on the second floor for small wine seminars and receptions, she notes. According to Poser, the biggest challenge facing the project was time. "We had only 10 weeks from the time the space was turned over by the landlord to complete the work," she said. "This meant working closely with subcontractors and vendors to coordinate a very tight construction and delivery schedule and having on-site representation from the design team to immediately work out issues in the field." The store opened on time on August 28th as the finishing touches were completed. Levien & Company managed the project team, which included: Lehr Construction as general contractor; GRID2 designers; Laszlo Bodak Engineer, P.C. for mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems; and Thornton Tomasetti as structural engineer.