A major step forward for the New York City skyline was taken on Tuesday morning. Elected officials joined developers to celebrate the official groundbreaking for One Vanderbilt.
A year ago, SL Green began knocking down a full block of prewar commercial buildings next to Grand Central to make way for a 1,401-foot-tall office tower at One Vanderbilt Avenue. Now YIMBY has a time lapse of the lengthy demolition between 42nd and 43rd Streets, courtesy of the project’s PR team.
While most of YIMBY’s recent supertall coverage has focused on the 57th Street corridor projects like 220 Central Park South (nearly supertall) and 217 West 57th Street (Central Park Tower), there’s also a commercial supertall set to shine over Midtown, and it’s getting closer to beginning its ascent.
Demolition has progressed significantly on the cluster of pre-war commercial buildings on the block bound by East 42nd and 43rd streets and Madison and Vanderbilt avenues, directly west of Grand Central Terminal in Midtown East. The existing structures are only a few more months from being removed, as seen in the photos by ILNY posted to the YIMBY Forums. In their place will rise a 67-story, 1,514-foot-tall office tower called One Vanderbilt, being developed by SL Green Realty Corporation and designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox. The tower will encompass 1,732,955 square feet of space, of which 1,295,140 square feet is designated as commercial.
In early 2015, renderings were revealed of the planned renovations at Citigroup’s headquarters at 388-390 Greenwich Street, in TriBeCa, and now the company is in contract to acquire the the 39-story, 2.7-million square-foot office complex. According to Real Estate Weekly, Citigroup will purchase the properties from SL Green Realty Corp. for $2 billion. The renovations include connecting the tower portion at 388 Greenwich to the 10-story structure at 390 Greenwich. The transformation will include a new façade on large portions of the existing buildings, a single lobby that serves both sections, plaza renovations, a rooftop terrace, and amenities like a fitness center. The sale is expected to close in December of 2017 and renovations should be complete by 2019.
