NEW YORK | 343 Madison Avenue | 844 FT | 49 FLOORS

[NYguy]

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[NYguy]

https://www.chelseanewsny.com/news/w...nths-YB3715010

Work Begins on New Entrance to Grand Central Madison but It Won’t Open for 18 Months





Ralph Spielman
03 Oct 2024

A new entrance to Grand Central Madison, the MTA’s $11.1 billion station that sits a quarter mile underground, is being erected at Madison Ave. and 45th Street. It will carve out a passageway that will cut through a new officer tower now being built and make the gleaming but under-utilized station ADA compatible.

The entranceway won’t be ready for another 18 months, however, but it will at least open long before the new officer tower which is expected to take four years to build.

The new entrance will help speed passengers to the new station platforms that are 14 stories below street level, sitting underneath the original Grand Central station.

The new entrance will be part of a new office tower that sits on a plot that once held the building that MTA used as its headquarters from 1979 to 2014 before moving it to Brooklyn.

The space dated from the First World War and was known as the Equitable Trust Building before 1979. The new building over the entrance will be known for now only as 343 Madison.

In 2020, BXP was selected to redevelop the site on Madison Avenue and demolition began in February 2021 to begin construction of the entrance, which started on Oct. 1 with the symbolic digging by MTA and local officials. BXP has agreed to build the new ADA compliant Grand Central Madison entrance in advance of the new skyscraper’s completion. The MTA will own the land on which the building is situated; this will mean a revenue stream expected to generate more than $1 billion in ground rent revenues and real estate taxes, dedicated to the now-underfunded MTA capital program.

This new entrance to Grand Central Madison’s Long Island Rail Road Concourse will bring the total to six street entrances: 42nd Street and 43rd Street through One Vanderbilt, at 47th Street inside 383 Madison Avenue, two elevator-only entrances in freestanding buildings built by the MTA at 44th Street and 48th Street and now 45th Street.

The MTA has planned two new direct street entrances north of 47th Street, giving even faster access to the LIRR East Side Terminal.

What about the new building surrounding the entrance? Right now, it’s an empty space. BXP has big plans for the block-long site. BXP will handle development, property management and leasing of the property of 343 Madison. After a scaling back from the original plans, the building will offer 750,400 square feet of office space, designed by the architectural firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox. They are the same firm that crafted One Vanderbilt, also in the immediate Grand Central area.

In conjunction with the MTA, BXP and its minority partner in this project, the Government Pension Fund of Norway, signed a 99-year ground lease with the MTA with the requirement of construction of a direct access entrance to Grand Central Madison, expected to open sometime in 2026. This is in advance of the building’s opening, whose construction, once started, could take up to four years.

Should BXP not find an anchor tenant for the office space, it has an option to terminate the main lease by July of 2025, and be compensated for the cost of the new constructed entrance to Grand Central Madison.

[Doubleu1117]

The MTA has planned two new direct street entrances north of 47th Street, giving even faster access to the LIRR East Side Terminal.

Didn't realize they were planning two north of 47th.

So it'll be:

42nd through GCT headhouse
43rd- One Vanderbilt
45th- 343 Madison
47th- 383 Madison

what are the next two? 270 Park and 415 Madison both going to have entrances?

[ChiND]

Since this tower will presumably have pretty small floor plates, it likely will have smaller, boutique tenants, rather than a massive law firm or corporation. It’s likely users don’t really seem like the type that will pre-lease 300k sf. I’m surprised that BP doesn’t build on spec. You’d think that the Norwegian wealth fund could finance this.


Personally, I’m not a fan of this lackluster, blue box. I’d rather see a RAMSA, five-star hotel/condo rise here.

KPF dropped the ball here. 570 Fifth, while not spectacular, is a much nicer tower. I don’t see how KPF can hit home runs with 1 Vanderbilt and 520 Fifth, and yet, draft a fairly lame tower on this site.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Doubleu1117

Didn't realize they were planning two north of 47th.

So it'll be:

42nd through GCT headhouse
43rd- One Vanderbilt
45th- 343 Madison
47th- 383 Madison

what are the next two? 270 Park and 415 Madison both going to have entrances?

Yes, 415 Madison at 48th Street also needs to get underway. There are a lot of entrances to Grand Central all along the Park Avenue corridor, even one right next to this one.

The new entrances will lead directly to the LIRR Madison concourse. 343 Madison will feed into the furthest south of the 4 escalator wells down to the train platforms.


415 Madison














Some prior work on the 343 Madison entrance...

[TKD]

Originally Posted by ChiND

Since this tower will presumably have pretty small floor plates, it likely will have smaller, boutique tenants, rather than a massive law firm or corporation. It’s likely users don’t really seem like the type that will pre-lease 300k sf. I’m surprised that BP doesn’t build on spec. You’d think that the Norwegian wealth fund could finance this.


Personally, I’m not a fan of this lackluster, blue box. I’d rather see a RAMSA, five-star hotel/condo rise here.

KPF dropped the ball here. 570 Fifth, while not spectacular, is a much nicer tower. I don’t see how KPF can hit home runs with 1 Vanderbilt and 520 Fifth, and yet, draft a fairly lame tower on this site.

Your whole post is based on assumptions, first that the floor plates are somehow very small, second that only boutique businesses would lease here (520 5th Ave has boutique sized office floor plates not this), and third your design opinion based on a render that doesn't even show 1/4 of the entire building and thats focusing on the LIRR entrance.

[ChiND]

Isn’t this 343?

[Ahoi]

ChiND, the developer decides what he wants and not the architect. The design can still change, because KPF is known for quality.

[TKD]

Originally Posted by ChiND

Isn’t this 343

Yes, of the ULURP issued design, you seem to have forgotten that the building went through another filing in 2022 with another slight massing/ supposed design change that hasnt been fully revealed yet.

[ChiND]

Originally Posted by TKD

Yes, of the ULURP issued design, you seem to have forgotten that the building went through another filing in 2022 with another slight massing/ supposed design change that hasnt been fully revealed yet.

I recall you said that but everyone suggested that the design can’t change much. I don’t know why, but that was the consensus. I hope that the ultimate design looks nicer than this.

[TKD]

Originally Posted by ChiND

I recall you said that but everyone suggested that the design can’t change much. I don’t know why, but that was the consensus. I hope that the ultimate design looks nicer than this.

Why wouldnt the design be able to change though? Design of a building is separate from the massing of a building as defined by zoning metrics. Nothing governs the design of a building, the design just conforms to the massing, that doesnt mean it (the design) can't be altered, its just the massing (in terms of maximum building envelope) that cant be altered.

[ChiND]

Originally Posted by TKD

Why wouldnt the design be able to change though? Design of a building is separate from the massing of a building as defined by zoning metrics. Nothing governs the design of a building.

I’ll take your word for it. You’re an architect. I am not. However, many other people on this board who seem to be in the development industry doubted that any changes to the design would be very different from what we’ve seen. While I find the renderings shown thus far to be mediocre, I look forward to seeing the final design.