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400 Fifth Avenue site is up for sale
By Carter Horsley   |   From Archives Friday, March 10, 2006
Lehman Brothers and Tessler Developments LLC anticipate receiving offers for their mixed-use development site at 400 Fifth Avenue on the northwest corner at 36th Street by the middle of next month.

The property is being marketed by Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan of CR Richard Ellis.

Mr. Shanahan told CityRealty.com today that the development package includes the vacant corner site and air rights over 404 and 401 Fifth Avenue.

He said that the total buildable square footage available is approximately 550,000 square feet, of which 190,000 square feet could be used for a hotel. The 550,000 square feet are available "as-of-right," he said, that is, they fall within existing zoning regulations and do not require a special permit.

Mr. Shanahan said that the site is being sold with plans by Peter Magill of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill that had previously been approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission for the site, but he added that a new owner is not bound to that plan. That plan indicated a low-rise base topped by a rectilinear tower of about 50 stories with a highly textured facade of undulating faceted elements and slightly angled windows

Mr. Shanahan remarked that the site is "the last major site on Fifth Avenue north of 34th Street" that could be developed in the foreseeable future.

The site was fully cleared a few months ago and had been acquired by Tessler Developments LLC from The Chetrit Group for about $150 million.

Yitzchak Tessler of Tessler Development Company told CityRealty.com last fall that the project would contain residential condominiums and a hotel.

For decades, the Empire State Building stood in splendid isolation. In recent years, however, a few mid-size towers have risen and the development of a tower on this site would be the latest tall neighbor to the Empire State Building. Its site is two blocks south from 425 Fifth Avenue, a quite tall, yellow-and-white, apartment tower and it is three blocks north of 325 Fifth Avenue, a 40-story condominium apartment building now in construction.

The site is convenient to Lord & Taylor, several major computer and electronic stores, and Bryant Park and its central midtown location is convenient to the city's two major train stations. It is also close to the Murray Hill, Chelsea and Flatiron districts.

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Architecture Critic Carter Horsley Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.