Paul Taylor Dance Co Priced Out of Soho

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

(Josh Haner/The New York Times)

By DANIEL J. WAKIN\New York Times

They are two classic New York stories.

One is the young dancer who came to the city, worked with the creative legends of the 1950s and ’60s and become a cultural lion. The other is the Holocaust survivor who arrived after the war, ran a clothing factory and took a real estate gamble that paid off.

For 20 years their lives have intersected at a building at 552 Broadway, in the heart of SoHo. The dancer is Paul Taylor, whose company has its home on the second floor of the building. The businessman is Milton Steinberg, who owns it.

Now other forces of New York — neighborhood metamorphosis and the insane rents that can come with it — are driving them apart.

A Banana Republic store on the first floor wants to expand upward, and Mr. Steinberg has agreed. The Paul Taylor Dance Company has lost its lease and must be out by April 15.