McGraw-Hill Building eyes 224-unit resi conversion

An office-to-residential conversion of the landmarked McGraw-Hill Building in Midtown is coming into focus. 

Resolution Real Estate is ready to convert part of the landmarked building at 330 West 42nd Street into apartments, the New York Post reported. Managing partner Gerard Nocera told the outlet the manager of the Deco Tower Associates-owned property has “cleared all the hurdles” for the conversion.

Floors 12 through 34 will be converted into 224 apartments at a cost of $100 million, according to Nocera. Work is expected to begin in the summer and the apartments are slated to be delivered in the second quarter of next year.

SLCE Architects is designing the residential units. Other updates to the building will include an additional entrance and lobby, as well as the re-installation of the McGraw-Hill name above the residential entrance.

The possibility of a partial conversion first came about in October. The Post reported at the time that ownership was considering turning the upper floors into luxury rentals, reserving the top floors for amenities and leaving the bottom 10 floors for office space.

Resolution is planning luxury rentals, a spokesperson for the firm said. The manager recently launched a $120 million renovation and repositioning of the 580,000-square-foot property.

The landmarked property, which was previously eyed for conversion in 2018, served as the headquarters for the titular publishing company from its 1931 completion until the 1970s. Other tenants have included medical insurer Group Health and Marvel Comics.

The building’s financial future is in a precarious street. Signature Bank last month put its performing loan on the building for sale a year before it is scheduled to mature. Newmark is marketing the $140 million loan, which has a debt balance of approximately $241 per square foot and is set to mature next May.

The major multifamily lender had been reining in its real estate lending and confronting last year’s cryptocurrency crash before regulators this week shut down Signature, which counted total assets of $110 billion and total deposits of $89 billion.  

— Holden Walter-Warner