The Daily Dirt: JPMorgan’s Midtown East bet

A lot has changed since JPMorgan Chase decided to stay in New York City.

The bank’s new headquarters at 270 Park Avenue was the first project to take advantage of the 2017 Midtown East rezoning, which was expected to lead to 6.5 million square feet of new office space.

A few months after the City Council approved the rezoning, JPMorgan announced that it would tear down its headquarters to build a gleaming new tower. The project would take advantage of the rezoning, swallowing up air rights from landmarks in the district to rise 60 stories and span 2.5 million square feet. It was vindication for the city: an almost immediate response to the rezoning that would concentrate 14,000 JPMorgan workers in Midtown East.

On Monday, elected officials, union leaders and bank CEO Jamie Dimon celebrated the project’s topping out. The market has obviously changed since the project broke ground, and while Park Avenue has been a bright spot for leasing by financial institutions, it cannot alone reverse the effects of remote work and the resulting desire by companies to reduce their footprints. Even JPMorgan slashed its office space in the city last year by 22 percent.

As Crain’s points out, Monday’s ceremony featured somewhat bleak comments from the mayor, who compared the moment to the early 1930s, when the Empire State Building was completed. Mayor Eric Adams said the iconic tower was a “symbol of strength” during the Great Depression. Because of economic conditions and the Second World War, two decades passed before another office skyscraper rose in the city.

What we’re thinking about: Why does Related want Signature Bank’s “toxic waste” loans? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.

A thing we’ve learned: Most residential buildings in NYC (80 percent) are heated by steam, according to a 2019 report by the Urban Green Council. Seventy-three percent of tenants in steam-heated buildings are “chronically overheated,” while 63 percent reported opening their windows in winter to cool down, the Guardian reports. Thank you to Erik Engquist for passing this along!

Elsewhere in New York…

— Mayor Eric Adams is ordering agencies to cut spending related to the migrant crisis by $2.1 billion in fiscal years 2024 and 2025, the New York Daily News reports. The Departments of Homeless Services, Housing Preservation and Development, Emergency Management and Health + Hospitals are spending the most in response to the crisis.

— The NYPD is spending $390 million on an encrypted radio system, Gothamist reports. Police radio channels in the city will be fully encrypted by 2024. “Bad actors have used our radios against us,” NYPD Chief of Information Technology Ruben Beltran said during a hearing Monday. In response, state Sen. Michael Gianaris has proposed the “Keep Police Radio Public Act.”

— The New York Court of Appeals on Monday upheld the city’s ban on chokeholds and other forms of restraint, the Associated Press reports. Police unions had challenged the law, which was passed in response to the killing of George Floyd.

Closing Time

Residential: The priciest residential closing Monday was $7.5 million for a condo at 35 Hudson Yards.

Commercial: The most expensive commercial closing of the day was $2.5 million for a four-unit house at 109 President Street in Brooklyn’s Columbia Street District.

New to the Market: The priciest residence to hit the market Monday was a condo at 50 Riverside Boulevard in Lincoln Square asking ​$11 million. Compass has the listing.

Breaking Ground: The largest new building filing of the day was for a 11,000-square-foot, six-story school at 370 Quentin Road, Brooklyn. PKSB Architects filed the permit application. — Jay Young