YIMBY last covered 417 Park Avenue back in July 2020, when demolition permits for the 14-story, 29-unit residential co-op building were fully filed. GDS Development (GDSNY) is the owner of the building that stands on an 8,725-square-foot site and was originally built in 1916 with two cellar levels and a penthouse atop the 143-foot-tall edifice. The Midtown East property is located at the corner of Park Avenue and East 55th Street and is directly south of Foster + Partner‘s topped-out and nearly complete 425 Park Avenue. GDSNY and Klövern AB previously paid $184 million to purchase all the units, and the demolition of the current structure will make way for an office tower with a floor area ratio of 25, or nearly 220,000 square feet under Midtown East Rezoning regulations.
Photographs taken in late August from across Park Avenue show black netting, wooden boards, and metal scaffolding covering all of 417 Park Avenue. It looks like the very top of the superstructure has begun to be dismantled. The relatively short height should make the downwards progression quick and we could see all of the floors demolished in the next several months, perhaps by this upcoming winter.
417 Park Avenue. Photo by Michael Young
417 Park Avenue. Photo by Michael Young
417 Park Avenue. Photo by Michael Young
GDSNY is also the owner of the adjacent two-story, 23-foot-tall, 4,300-square-foot 407 Park Avenue, which still stands today directly to the south of 417 Park Avenue. Built in 1910 and the former retail location for Italian menswear boutique Stefano Ricci, full demolition permits were also filed for this address, though it’s unclear when this will be torn down. The facade was still visible upon walking around the area and showed no signs of demolition activity yet. Ancora Engineering is listed as the applicant of record for both 409 and 417 Park Avenue. The nearest subway stop is the Lexington Avenue-53rd Street station, serviced by the E, M, and 6 trains and found one avenue to the east.
No official rendering, architect, or completion date for 417 Park Avenue have been announced yet, though YIMBY will keep a close eye on the progress of this upcoming building.
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This is utterly heartbreaking to destroy a masterpiece of historical design. Go to street view to see what is being lost.
The disgusting greed of this city never ceases to amaze me.
I find it amazing that a building that big only had 29 residential units.
Yeah its pretty sick that they made zero attempt to incorporate the facade somehow or even save it for reassembly on a new structure which they have the technology to do. Something is very wrong in this town.
I would have thought he new Midtown East zoning changes would permit more distant transfers of development right from this site to something less historical. That’s how these kinds of buildings could be saved from demolition while still allowing the same additional development mass in the area.
Interesting that the location is going from residential to commercial office space.
When the original building was built it was essentially THE most desirable residential neighborhood in the city (and possibly the world) but Park below 59th has been commercializing for the past 100 years. COVID is just a blip in market forces here due to the proximity of Grand Central.
There goes another beautiful relic.
These luxury apartment buildings from the era when Grand Central Terminal/Terminal City was designed and built. I don’t know if this building was reviewed for preservation by the Landmark Preservation Board, but it should have been.
*Disappointed sigh*
It was certainly a nice looking building from the outside. Unfortunately, living styles have changed from the time it was built. People tend not to have huge numbers of children. Massive dining rooms have gone out of fashion, and indeed, there is a “dining room question” about having them at all. Frequently, there was a warren of tiny servants’ rooms. The building next to it is using the air rights (heaven rights?) from St. Patrick’s for its enlargement.
what a sad day for nyc
Another one bites the dust
What can you say that the other nimby’s haven’t already said
From the allowable size of the new building, how many floors are to be expected?
The adjacent white building is also empty and ready to be developed.
Will this be a single building for the whole block?
Sad to lose another classic New York building. Midtown is becoming increasingly corporate and generic. How many glass towers do we actually need? NY is so far behind in preservation and reuse. The city needs to wake up before there’s nothing left.