The Knox, 49 East 34th Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 49 East 34th Street by Carter Horsley

This 36-story, mid-block, rental apartment tower at 49 East 34^th Street was erected in 2007 and has 110 units.

The building is known as Madison Park Tower and was designed by HTO Architect.

It has excellent public transportation and is close to the Morgan Library.

It was erected as a condominium project by Esplanade Capital of which Jay Eisenstadt and David Scharf are partners.  Esplanade then planned to sell the development to Sorrento Asset Management, but Sorrento missed some payments, causing Esplanade to default on its construction loan with iStar Financial.  According to a February 25, 2015 article by Charles V. Bagli in The New York Times, “before foreclosure in 2011, iStar pushed Esplanade to rent the tower to Bridgestreet Corporate Housing, which operates extended stay housing….[but] Esplanade later lost the building to iStar, which sold its loan to CIM Group.

In March, 2015, the extended-stay hotel ceased operations and the tower’s units were converted to rent-regulated apartments and the New York State Attorney General’s Office had the CIM Group pay $4.4 million to a special city fund for building affordable housing.  That was the amount of tax breaks that the building had received.  The CIM Group was a co-developer of the SuperTall luxury apartment building at 432 Park Avenue.

Bottom Line

This tall, mid-block tower has many great vistas of the nearby Empire State Building and is convenient to the Murray Hill neighborhood and the emerging NoMad neighborhood with two new towers one block south on Madison Avenue.

Description

The building has a one-story base with a hanging entrance marquee and the tower is setback considerably on the base. 

The tower has two center white piers flanked by single red-brick piers.

It has windows at its four corners and discrete air-conditioners.

Amenities

The building has a 24-hour attended lobby, a cardio fitness room, a laundry, a bicycle room and it permits pets.

Apartments

Apartments have solar shades, Frigidaire refrigerators, GE dishwashers, 9-foot-high ceilings and marble bathrooms with Kohler fixtures.

Most apartments have Bosch washers and dryers.

Apartment A on floors 7 through 36 is a two-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads past an open kitchen to a 13-foot-long living/dining room with a corner window facing west towards the Empire State Building.

Apartment B on floors 7 through 36 is a one-bedroom unit with an entry foyer that leads past an open kitchen to the 15-foot-long living room with a corner window facing south and east.

Apartment C is a one-bedroom unit on floors 7 through 3 6 with an entry foyer that leads past an open kitchen to the 15-foot-long living room with a corner window facing north and east.