For nearly 170 years, Union Square has been a gathering place for commerce, entertainment, labor, political events, and recreation. The park owes its name to being at the intersection, or union, of two major roads, Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) and Bowery Road (now Fourth Avenue). In 1997, Union Square Park was designated as a National Historic Landmark because of its significance in American labor history. For 20 years beginning in the 1970s, the Union Square area saw hard times. Over the past decade, the area has seen a resurgence and become a major hub of residential, retail, and hospitality.

The 80,000-square-foot headquarters of the Amalgamated Bank, founded in 1923 by the Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers of America, is located at 15 Union Square. The site is the former home of Tiffany & Company. The bank has retained an investment sales company to sell the property, which may fetch close to $56 million, or $700 a buildable foot. Industry leaders expect a developer to buy the property, demolish it, and redevelop it as residential condominiums or a mixed-use hotel and condominium tower.

The building on the southwest corner of 14th Street and University Place – a two-story yellow brick box with a fourstory tower enclosed in glass on three sides – was erected in 1949 as the Paterson Silk Building. The building was demolished last year, and was recently acquired by the Claremont Group, which plans to build a mixed-use building. The site is across the street from a building redeveloped by Vornado Realty Trust, the former J.W. Mays site at 4 Union Square South. In October 2004, DSW Shoes was the first retailer to open in the five-story, 193,000-square-foot vertical retail center. Prominent retailers at this location include Filene’s Basement, Forever 21, and a 48,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market.

Last year, McSam Hotels, one of the city’s leading developers of limited-service hotels, purchased a site at 132-38 Fourth Ave., which is also known as 76 E. 13th St., from John Catsimatidis’s Red Apple Real Estate. McSam plans to build a 62,000-square-foot, 10-story boutique hotel.

At 137 E. 13th St., between Third and Fourth avenues, is a site that was recently purchased by Emmut Properties.The developer plans to build a sixstory residential condominium. Up the street, Ultimate Realty purchased from the artist and sculptor Frank Stella a single-family and mixed-use site at 126-28 E. 13th St.

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The city’s first Trader Joe’s opened on March 17 in the Palladium building at 142 E. 14th St., which also houses a college dormitory for New York University. The NYU dorm was built in 2001 on the site that previously housed the Palladium, a popular dance club, and Julian’s, a pool hall. East of the NYU dorm is University Hall, built in 1998 at 110 E. 14th St. University Hall was built on the site of the famous German restaurant Luchow’s, which opened in 1882. In 1982, the restaurant closed and was acquired by the real estate developer Jeffrey Glick. The site was demolished in 1995.

Adjacent to University Hall at 116 E. 14th St. is a two-level P.C. Richard’s, on the site of Gramercy Gym, where box ing legends Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres trained.The site used to house a city-owned parking lot.The retail store is in a building that is home to the Genesis Robert F. Kennedy Apartments, which is owned by the nonprofit HELP USA, on East 13th Street. The apartments provide housing for about 94 low-income families, some of whom used to be homeless. HELP USA was founded by Andrew Cuomo.

Last November, NYU entered an agreement with the Hudson Companies to erect a 26-story dormitory to hold about 700 students on a site at 124 E. 12th St. The tower will be on the site of the former St. Ann’s Church. Hudson also acquired air rights from the Cooper Station Post Office on Fourth Avenue at 11th Street. The church was built as the 12th Street Baptist Church, later acquired by Temple Emanuel-El, and later acquired by St. Ann’s, a Roman Catholic parish on Astor Place.

Across from these buildings on the north side of East 14th Street is the Con Edison building at 2 Irving Place. The Apple Bank for Savings is on the ground floor of the Con Edison Building at 4 Irving Place, a famed clocktower that was built in 1929. At 145-147 E. 14th St. is a parking lot owned by Con Edison that industry leaders expect will be sold to a residential developer.

Last year, Con Edison sold a parking lot at 101 W. 24th St., also known as 735 Sixth Ave., to a joint venture of LCOR and CalSTRS. The developers plan to build a 37-story, 191-unit condo tower.A few years ago, Con Edison sold its Waterside Steam Plant and land along the East River just south of the United Nations for $670 million to the developer Sheldon Solow.

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Toll Brothers, America’s biggest luxury homebuilder, plans to build a 21-story residential condominium tower with 77 units on the mid-block site of the former Variety Arts Theater at 110 Third Ave. between 13th and 14th streets. In addition to the theater site, the development includes the four-story building at 108 Third Ave. The theater opened before World War I and was closed in October 2004. Across from this site is another site that was acquired about 20 years ago by Milstein Properties, owners of the Emigrant Savings Bank and numerous residential rental and condominium towers in Manhattan.

At 421 E. 13th St. between First Avenue and Avenue A in the East Village, the Ascend Group is finishing an eight-story building with 90 condominium apartments – and cabanas on the roof. The developer paid $19.763 million, or about $295 a buildable foot, for the site.

According to industry sources, a great little site for residential condominium development is at 57-59 Irving Place between 17th and 18th streets. The site presently houses a four-story garage that can be developed into a 35,000-square-foot, 10-story building.

The Daryl Roth Theater, in the former Union Square Savings Bank at 20 Union Square East and 15th Street, was built in the 1840s. This landmark building was revived as a theater by the producer Daryl Roth in 1996. In 2002, the theater opened as the 99-seat DR Theatre in the former annex of the Union Square Savings Bank.

A turning point in the redevelopment of Union Square was the erection of the four 26-story, 670-unit residential condo towers, Zeckendorf Towers, in 1987.They occupy a full block between Fourth Avenue, Irving Place, and 14th and 15th streets, including most of the S.Klein-on-the Square properties. S.Klein opened in 1921 and closed in 1975. The project was developed by a joint venture of the Zeckendorf Company, the Hirschfeld Realty Company, Kumagai Gumi Company of Tokyo, and Irwin Ackerman.The apartment towers were built atop six stories of commer cial and retail space.

In early 1997, an investment group led by Peter and Anthony Malkin purchased the 59,977-square-foot retail condo unit at Zeckendorf Towers that includes a Food Emporium, HSBC Bank, and Federal Express. The 362,000-square-foot office condo is owned and operated by Beth Israel Medical Center, which paid about $34 million for it. The building also has a 350-seat theater and a 198-space parking garage.

In 1999, the Related Companies completed the mixed-use building One Union Square South that occupies the block front on 14th Street between Fourth Avenue and Broadway. In addition to the 27-story residential rental tower, the property has a UARegal Cinema, a Virgin Records, and a Circuit City.

Over the next year, industry leaders expect greater expansion of the vibrant Union Square area.

Mr. Stoler is a television broadcaster and senior vice president at First American Title Insurance Company of New York. He can be reached at mstoler@firstam.com.