$600m price tag is put on 340 West Street site.

It's amazing what the promise of redevelopment can do to the price of Manhattan property.

340 West Street, which is being put on the auction block by long-time owner, Eugene Grant, offers such a slew of redevelopment opportunities, experts in investment sales feel the price for the squat, four-story, 1.25 million s/f building could swell to as much as $600 million.

Future air rights play no small part in that lofty potential price tag and promise to be one of the focal points in the marketing strategy for the building. "It's a very interesting piece of property," said Ben Lambert, president of Eastdil, who was tapped by Grant to handle the sale. "While current zoning prohibits certain types of high rise developments, that could change and this property has the potential for greater development."

Just what that development could be is completely speculative as of now Lambert said, but the site could make an ideal home for anything from office to residential to mixeduse space. There is even a potential scenario in which the existing structure, currently anchored by Merrill Lynch offices, remains. "The tenants have a few years left on their leases and I think that everyone there is aware of the fact that they're probably not going to be there after those leases expire," Lambert said. "But the building is in excellent shape and you can assume that there's a possible outcome where it would be preserved."

Lambert, however, hinted that the building's preservation wouldn't yield the highest value. "The air rights are an integral piece of the deal," he said. "They represent the potential for increasing the usability of the site, which obviously will reflect in the price."