Midtown East rezoning a boon for Helmsley Building buyer

Though the iconic Helmsley Building at 230 Park Avenue is landmarked, a buyer interested in the property could benefit from the upcoming rezoning of Midtown East’s Vanderbilt corridor.

A rezoning would increase the corridor’s permissible floor-to-area ratio from 21.6 to 30.

This means that at 230 Park Avenue, over 80,000 square feet of additional air rights could suddenly be up for grabs, veteran air rights broker Robert Shapiro told the New York Post.

Scott Rechler’s RXR Realty and Walton Street Capital own neighboring 237 Park Avenue. Factoring in the additional air rights from their property and those of the Helmsley Building, the partners could have nearly 220,000 square feet of additional development space post-rezoning, according to the newspaper.

Monday Properties paid $1.15 billion for the 34-story, 1.4 million-square-foot tower in 2007, at the height of the market. The property, being marketed by CBRE’s Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan, is expected to command a similar price tag this time around. [NYP] — Hiten Samtani