Manhattan’s largest commercial landlord is proposing a redesign to the outdoor plaza of its Park Avenue office building.
Robert DeWitt, senior vice president of construction at SL Green, filed a rezoning application with the Department of City Planning to update the “bare” plaza around the tower at 245 Park Avenue, Crain’s New York reported.
The real estate firm is proposing to add 31 trees and additional seating, along with addressing grade differences in an effort to make the outdoor space “livelier and more inviting,” according to the application. The project would also replace windows and update the building’s lobby and elevator cabs.
The application does not include a proposed timeline or cost for construction.
Built in 1966, the more than 81,000-square-foot office tower and its 19,100-square-foot plaza is bounded by Park and Lexington avenues and East 46th and 47th streets.
SL Green last year sold 50 percent of the equity in the 1.7 million-square-foot tower to Japanese developer Mori Trust in a deal that valued the tower at $2 billion. The owner acquired the property in 2022 through a bankruptcy auction.
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The building hit an occupancy rate of 92.5 percent, thanks to a new lease agreement with hedge fund Veritant Group, which took over 72,500 square feet of office space for 10 years, SL Green announced Monday.
However, the tower has a 64 percent retail vacancy rate as the market continues its battle for stabilization following the pandemic. Two of the building’s four retail spaces stand vacant, including a 10,000-square-foot unit at the corner of 47th Street and Lexington Avenue, which hasn’t seen an occupant in over a decade.
— Caroline Handel