Nation’s highest-taxed office buildings are all in one neighborhood

With its long history and concentration of skyscrapers, Manhattan is home to 82 of the 100 highest-taxed office buildings in the country, according to a new report.

In fact, every one of the top 10 is in Midtown, the analysis by PropertyShark found. The list serves as a reminder that for all the headlines about the district becoming dated or losing tenants to Hudson Yards, it remains far and away the city’s and nation’s greatest repository of commercial property wealth.

No. 1 on the list is the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Avenue, which forked over more than $75 million last year.

Before the pandemic, Midtown East and the Garment District were rezoned to allow for the modernization of Midtown, which will likely be necessary for companies to persuade their workers to return to their desks. City officials and landlords alike are watching with bated breath to see just how far office building values will fall in the coming years as office occupancy rates remain low.

One study estimated that New York’s office stock will decrease in value by 28 percent, or $49 billion, by 2029.

That would mean a sizable drop in tax revenue for the city. Just over half of New York City’s tax revenue comes from real estate.

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“The uncertainty of office space use given the shift to hybrid work is a large enough change that we could see the percent decline in the property tax revenues nearly match the percent decline in market values,” warned a June report from the city comptroller’s office.

Here are the 10 highest-taxed buildings in the country. Together, they were responsible for over $500 million in tax revenue in 2021.

1. The $75.3 million in tax revenue paid by the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Avenue easily led the nation. The 50-story tower with 1.7 million square feet of office space occupies an entire city block at the southeast corner of Central Park. The building is owned by Boston Properties in partnership with Chinese billionaire Zhang Xin and Safra Bank.

2.Another product of the skyscraper boom of the 1960s, the MetLife Building at 200 Park Avenue paid $60.4 million in taxes last year. The 59-story building is owned by Tishman Speyer and Irvine Company.

3.The third-highest tax-paying office property in the city is actually three buildings at Rockefeller Center: The International Building and the two buildings flanking it, 50 Rockefeller Plaza and 1270 Sixth Avenue (better known as the office building on top of Radio City Music Hall). Together, this bundle paid $53.8 million in taxes.

4. Coming in fourth with a tax bill of $53.77 million is the Solow Building at 9 West 57th Street. It was built in the early 1970s by the late real estate mogul Sheldon Solow, founder of Solow Realty & Development, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 92. Solow’s firm still owns the building.

5.Also situated at Rockefeller Center, 1221 Sixth Avenue paid $53.1 million in taxes.

6. Another Midtown behemoth, the AllianceBernstein Building at 1345 Sixth Avenue paid $49.2 million last year.

7. One of the older buildings on this list, Google’s 1930s Art-Deco building at 111 Eighth Avenue paid $48.7 million. With 2.9 million square feet, the building occupies an entire block in Chelsea. Originally the Port Authority Building, it is now owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company.

8. With a tax amount of $46.3 million in 2021, Vornado and the Trump Organization’s 1290 Sixth Avenue skyscraper comes in eighth. The 2.1-million-square-foot building is home to Cushman & Wakefield, Neuberger Berman and Hachette Book Group, but its largest tenant, Axa Equitable Life Insurance, plans to move down the street to the No. 6 payer, the AllianceBernstein Building, next year.

9. The newest building to make the 100 highest-taxed is One Vanderbilt, the SL Green-owned skyscraper completed in 2020. Its levy was just under $44 million, an amount that should increase substantially as the building fills up. It is already home to what may be New York’s highest office rent ever: Canadian environmental services company GFL Environmental this spring leased the supertall’s 73rd floor, for which SL Green was asking $322 per square foot.

10. Just cracking the top 10 is Paramount Plaza at 1633 Broadway, owned by the Paramount Group. The building’s tax amount last year was $43.9 million. The 48-story, 2.5-million-square-foot building gained a new Michelan-starred tenant in February, the Taiwanese restaurant Din Tai Fung.