Midtown’s tallest-ever skyscraper, to be anchored by Ken Griffin’s financial companies, has gotten the green light in a 48-0 vote by the City Council — a rare unanimous endorsement by the often development-averse body.
The plan for a new 350 Park Ave. represents a remarkable personal commitment by mega-billionaire Griffin, who’s a partner with two major development companies — privately held Rudin and publicly traded Vornado Realty Trust.
The 1,600-foot-tall tower will dwarf Midtown’s current cloudbuster king, the JPMorgan Chase headquarters at 270 Park Ave., by 200 feet. Its 1.7 million square feet of floor space will be anchored by two Griffin-owned companies, Citadel and Citadel Securities, which will occupy 850,000 square feet.
Demolition of three buildings now at the site will start early next year, with the new, $4.5 billion tower to open in 2032. It will front on the full block of Park Avenue between East 51st and 52nd streets and on portions of the side blocks, as well.
The designers, architectural firm Foster + Partners, have something of a monopoly in the neighborhood — they also designed the JPMorgan tower and nearby 425 Park Ave.
The 350 Park Ave. project has been in the planning stages for six years. It was made possible by recent rezoning to allow larger office buildings such as One Vanderbilt in East Midtown, a once-premier district that was dominated by older, smaller and antiquated buildings.
The new tower required $150 million purchases of air rights from St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Bart’s Church, as well as city approval of a relatively small size increase for which the developers are to contribute $35 million to the city for pedestrian and public improvements.
The tower will rise with or without additional tenants. Vornado’s executive vice-president earlier told The Post. “The magic formula to get a tower off ground is to have an anchor tenant and equity partners, which we have in the form of ourselves, Rudin and Ken Griffin.”
The supertall tower is to be all-electric, environmentally sensitive and “wellness”-attuned.
It will boast a block-long public plaza on the Park Avenue side and wrapping onto the side streets, a fine-dining restaurant on 52nd Street and a cafe on 51st Street. The Council approved the plans on Thursday.
A project spokesman said, “We appreciate the Council’s thoughtful consideration and we thank Council Member [Keith] Powers and the City Planning Commission for their productive feedback and leadership throughout the approval process.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
