The office building at 11 Madison Avenue, once known as the MetLIfe Building, was initially intended to be the worlds tallest building. The Great Depression hit, plans changed, and the developers had to settle for what would become merely one of the more recognizable Art Deco buildings in Midtown Manhattan.
The building was completed for MetLife in three phases from 1932 through 1950, and in the 1990s the building was again redeveloped. In 1996 it was registered as a historic building.

MetLife retained ownership until 2003, when the Sapir Organization purchased the building for $675 million. In 2011 CIM Group paid $469 million for a 49 percent stake in the property; the other half was retained by the Sapir Organization. Over the years the building has become a haunt for several Fortune 500 companies, including Sony, Yelp, and Credit Suisse, which has been the buildings anchor tenant. It also houses renowned restaurant 11 Madison Park on its ground floor.
In 2013 CIM and Sapir flirted with the idea of selling, putting the building on the market for $1.5 billion, but they ultimately got cold feet. -WP