The mid-rise, commercial building at 396 Fifth Avenue has been recently demolished, completing the clearing of the site for the development of a major mixed-use tower at 400 Fifth Avenue on the northwest corner at 36th Street. Two mid-block, mid-rise buildings at 398 and 400 Fifth Avenue were previously demolished.

The full site was acquired recently by Tessler Developments LLC from The Chetrit Group.

Yitzchak Tessler of Tessler Development Company told CityRealty.com today that plans for the site have not yet been finalized but should be by March. He said the project will contain residential condominiums and a hotel and that it will require public reviews.

He said that his company was reviewing previously published plans for the site by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. When asked whether Gwathmey Siegel & Associates might become involved since he has used them on the Windsor Park residential development at 100 West 58th Street and a residential project planned for 240 Park Avenue South, he again said simply that plans are being "reviewed."

Tessler Development's other projects in the city have included 150 Nassau Street and 66 Leonard Street and the Bryant Park Hotel.

Previously published plans, shown at the right, for 400 Fifth Avenue indicated a condominium apartment tower of about 50 stories or 600 feet designed by Peter Magill of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill that featured a very unusual facade of undulating faceted elements and slightly angled windows. The tower in that plan would be setback on a base that held to the building line on Fifth Avenue.

The tower would be the latest new high-rise building to be erected within a few blocks of the Empire State Building, which has for decades stood in splendid isolation. 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 50-story condominium apartment building now in construction.