The old 708 Third Avenue is dead: The 35-story office tower will soon go by 10 Grand Central.
Marx Realty, which has owned the property for roughly a decade, is moving the building’s primary entrance to 44th Street, as part of a $45 million repositioning that includes shaking the tower’s connection to Third Avenue, the New York Post reported. Marx CEO and President Craig Deitelzweig said he’s “100 percent done” with Third Avenue.
“We don’t want to be associated with Third Avenue,” he said. “We want to be a Grand Central building. Most of our tenants come to work through Grand Central Terminal every day and so do our visitors.”
The building is a bit of an outlier on Third Avenue: It was built in 1931 and designed by Ely Jacques Kahn, the architect behind the Bergdorf Goodman. Most of the avenue’s office towers were constructed after 1955.
Studio Architecture’s David Burns will redesign an existing secondary entrance at 155 East 44th Street, which was the building’s original entrance. The Third Avenue entrance will be converted into space for a fast-casual restaurant.
The name change could significantly impact the building’s rent. According to JLL’s Howard Hersch and Clark Finney, who are marketing 10 Grand Central, average asking rents along Third Avenue are at $64.76 per square foot while the Grand Central submarket boasts $91.26 per square foot. [NYP] — Kathryn Brenzel