Steve Cuozzo

Steve Cuozzo

Real Estate
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1 Vanderbilt: High on Grand Central

Rendering of 1 VanderbuiltKohn Pedersen Fox Associates

That’s a beaut of a plan the city and SL Green came up with for 1 Vanderbilt, a 65-story tower likely to be anchored by TD Bank, which would spearhead the long-term rezoning of all of East Midtown.

At a stroke, it would bring the Grand Central Terminal area a new skyscraper for the first time in decades. It would dramatically reverse the perception that companies have ceased setting up their headquarters in the area even as many have moved out.

But will it win the blessings of Community Board 5, the City Council, especially of Council member Dan Garodnick, who killed an earlier rezoning scheme?

What about Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, a micro-manager who imposed a confusing tangle of storefront rules on the Upper West Side?

And even if all hands love the 1 Vanderbilt plan, how long might it be before the bankers could move into their fancy new digs?

The proposal was rolled out with fanfare last week. City Planning Commission chair Carl Weisbrod hopes to begin the public review process in the fall and see it approved by spring.

Weisbrod is a master at getting things done. In the first test of his new role, he successfully steered the Domino Sugar site project in Williamsburg through the City Council after a few tweaks to the original plan.

But Midtown Manhattan’s a tougher animal, with innumerable special-interest groups and “stakeholders” all squealing for a say. The city and SL Green clearly intend a full-court press: The project is being represented by BerlinRosen, the influential public relations/consulting firm that helped Bill de Blasio win the mayoralty.

The plan would replace the whole block bounded by Madison and Vanderbilt avenues and East 42nd and 43rd streets, now occupied by four midsize prewar structures, with a 1,200-foot-tall, 1.6 million-square-foot tower designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox.

It would be twice as large as current zoning allows. To fully exploit new size rules for Vanderbilt Avenue, SL Green would need to transfer air rights from 110 E. 42nd St., the former Bowery Savings Bank building it owns nearby, and deliver a $200 million package of public benefits in and around the new tower.

Unlike the aborted rezoning scheme proposed under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which called for developers to pay into a city-managed District Improvement Fund, the “Vanderbilt Corridor” proposal would not require developers to pay the city.

Rather, SL Green would pay for and create the promised public improvements, to be worked out in consultation with city agencies and the community. The tower could not be occupied until those amenities were actually finished and put in use.

But first, the four buildings now on the block, comprising more than 1 million square feet, must be emptied of office and retail tenants — which can’t be done overnight.

Next, they must be demolished. Brewer recently said she wants Landmarks Preservation Commission review to demolish buildings 50 or more years old; all four structures went up in the 1920s.

Then, given the complexities of Midtown infrastructure, completion of the public amenities could be years away, even if SL Green were to start work in late 2015.

The upgrades would include a direct underground connection to Grand Central Terminal, a ground-floor public lobby including a train arrival and departure board on the 43rd Street side, and a pedestrian plaza between 42nd and 43rd streets.

Plus, unspecified pedestrian-flow improvements in the overcrowded Grand Central subway station require cooperation with the MTA.

So, while 1 Vanderbilt has been described as the “fast-track” portion of the larger-scale rezoning eventually planned for the whole 73-block East Midtown district, it might be a track with lots of yellow lights along the way.


SL Green has a contract to buy 719 Seventh Ave., a low-rise corner building now home to a deli. It will be razed for a modern three-story retail structure of 25,000 square feet, said SLG managing director Brett Herschenfeld.

The price of the purchase was not disclosed.

The site is on the same block as the planned new Marriott Edition Hotel.


The merger of Studley with Britain’s Savills plc closed on Monday. Savills will pay Studley up to $260 million through a combination of cash, new Savills shares and promissory notes.

The merger is expected to strengthen Studley’s clout in Europe and Asia while bolstering Savills’ US presence.