Tommy Hilfiger buys Madison Avenue clocktower; Senate bill would reverse Stuy Town ruling

Prep-wear purveyor Tommy Hilfiger (owned by Phillips-Van Heusen) is in contract to buy 5 Madison Avenue, the clocktower building that was once the city’s tallest, for $170 million. The building was sold by Africa Israel USA, who had planned to turn the landmark into a luxury condominium before selling it. The apparel company is reportedly looking to expand into the hotel business, which would be a logical fit for the 700-foot-high tower that was built in 1909 and was the world’s tallest building until 1913 when it was surpassed by the Woolworth Building.

A bill currently in the State Senate could reverse a 2009 decision by the New York Court of Appeals, which ruled that owners of the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complexes in Manhattan had improperly deregulated thousands of apartments while taking special tax benefits from the city. The proposed legislation, sponsored by Senator Catharine Young, a Republican from Olean in western New York, would allow landlords to pay back the tax breaks and keep rents at market level. This rollback of the court decision would mean landlords would not have to roll back rents or repay what tenant advocates estimate is $200 million in rent overcharges, which would threaten long-term affordability for longtime residents of the complex. The improper deregulation began under Metropolitan Life Insurance Company—the original property owners—and continued after Tishman Speyer and partners bought the complex for $5.4 billion in 2006. The new owners defaulted and the complex is now controlled by CW Capital.