NEW YORK | 350 Park Avenue | 1,413 FT | 62 FLOORS

[NYguy]

You can see why he’s pushing for new headquarters…


https://fortune.com/2023/01/26/ken-g...office-return/

Ken Griffin credits Citadel’s historic $16 billion haul to one thing: Employees’ full-time return to office
The secret to Ken Griffin’s record-breaking year, if you ask him, is simple: Workers returned to the Citadel offices.


BY CHLOE BERGER
January 26, 2023

Citadel CEO Ken Griffin could easily be considered the top dog in finance right now. The hedge fund saw a record $16 billion in profits for clients last year, beating the rest of the hedge fund industry.

That surpasses the $15 billion John Paulson generated betting against subprime mortgages in 2007. All together, the top 20 hedge funds generated $22.4 billion in post-fee profits, Citadel included.

The secret to Griffin’s success, if you ask him, is simple: Workers returned to the Citadel offices.

Fortune CEO Alan Murray sat down with Griffin and New York City Mayor Eric Adams two weeks ago as part of an interview for the Partnership for New York City. “At that meeting, Griffin gave what he said was an important reason for his 2023 success: His employees were all back in the office full-time,” Murray wrote in his CEO Daily newsletter on Tuesday.

Many a suit nodded their heads in agreement, per Murray’s account. Of course, there could also be other reasons contributing to Citadel’s success. Chairman of LCH Investments Rick Sopher said in a statement that the strong gains multi-strategy hedge funds like Citadel have made in recent years “reflect their increasing dominance in strategies which do not depend on rising asset prices, and their substantial size.”

”If you are early in your career, you are making a grave mistake not being back at work,” Griffin told Bloomberg’s Erik Schatzker in 2021. Citing the importance of managerial and interpersonal experience in developing one’s career, Griffin added that he was concerned that the loss of opportunities for young professionals would “cost us dearly over the decades to come.”

He brought the Citadel employees back to the office full-time in June 2021. “Having everybody back together has been really powerful in driving forward our business,” Griffin said at the time.

Return to office fever has infected many CEOs and executives in the financial sector. Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman recently said coming into the office was “not an employee choice.” Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon was one of the initial finance CEOs to push for a return to office, as early as a full year ago, only to be met with opposition. Even today, not all employees are showing up. Rich Handler, CEO of investment bank Jefferies also joined the work-in-the-office team.

[JMKeynes]

He is 100% correct.

With all of the layoffs going on, recalcitrant workers who refused to go back to the office will lose the leverage that they formerly had when the market was tight.

[NYguy]

Once a building is under construction, it is still subject to some revision in height, though mostly minor. This tower, in particular, still doesn't have a defined (final) height. It will be approximately 1,600 ft tall. But even at a significantly lesser height, it is much more than was proposed when Citadel became a tenant. 1,350 ft is nothing to laugh at, even in NYC. We have multiple supertall proposals that we would be ecstatic to have reach that height. And nobody should think any differrently.

Originally Posted by Sky88

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...uverify%20wall

New tower and no spires!

Originally Posted by NYguy

More from the article….


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...er-banner-year

Citadel Plots Out NYC Tower in Major Buildout After Banner Year
Ken Griffin’s empire will occupy more than half of the office space at a new Manhattan skyscraper at 350 Park Ave., which is expected to be completed in 2032.


By Amanda L Gordon and Natalie Wong+Follow
January 9, 2023


Ken Griffin’s Citadel, fresh off a banner year, is sketching out plans for a massive new Manhattan tower that will give his financial empire a concentrated New York footprint alongside Wall Street’s biggest firms.

Initial proposals call for a skyscraper that could rise to roughly 1,350 feet (411 meters) with 51 office floors and seven terraces, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named discussing private information. Citadel will occupy about 54% of the office building, which will be designed by Foster + Partners, the firm founded by star architect Norman Foster. The tower is expected to be completed in 2032.

The tower’s height would make it among the tallest buildings in the city, on par with JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s new headquarters in Midtown that is under construction, as well as One Vanderbilt, a skyscraper near Grand Central Terminal. The latest potential addition to the skyline is a sign that for all of New York’s struggles after Covid, finance firms are committing to the city.

[KevinFromTexas]

This is good, too, but not nearly as good as the original design. It's a shame because I was thinking the original would be similar to Hong Kong's Bank of China, which would have been amazing. I mean, I like this, and if it had been the original design and it was the final one, I'd be happy, but I sort of feel like it's too close to a few other towers in the pipeline, namely, 15 Penn Plaza. And I'd gladly trade that one for this one since it's pretty blah.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

This is good, too, but not nearly as good as the original design. It's a shame because I was thinking the original would be similar to Hong Kong's Bank of China, which would have been amazing. I mean, I like this, and if it had been the original design and it was the final one, I'd be happy, but I sort of feel like it's too close to a few other towers in the pipeline, namely, 15 Penn Plaza. And I'd gladly trade that one for this one since it's pretty blah.

I don't think that rendering flushes out in enough detail what the final product will actually look out, but is rather a conceptual rendering that they are working through. Much like 270 Park and JP Morgan Chase, the design of this tower is being tenant driven. I think they are going to put everything in this tower that they would like, and as the major tenant of 425 Park Avenue, will push for a design just as nice if not better. They also need to make the tower attractive to other top tenants, because there will be enough space left to rent out, at least at this point. The top in particular, is what I would like to see more refined. That's always what defines these skyscrapers on the skyline. The greenery is always overdone in the renderings, and won't be as distracting as it appears there, but they will most certainly get those terraces with greenery. I don't think you can get an office tower without it these days. But I'm looking forward to the approvals process.

[gttx]

You get stacked boxes, and you get stacked boxes. Everybody gets stacked boxes!

[chris08876]

It's clean and refined and meets the needs of future tenants. The ultimate goal with any tower is to... attract the tenants and retain them. Towers are always competing with their surroundings. Competition and trends will dictate designs, at least with office but also extended towards some residential.

Residential tends to have that high demand attribute in which in some locations, you could build a brown turd facade of a building and folks will still buy or rent but with office, functionality, amenities and common space access are important with todays tenants; and sometimes, to the dismay of aesthetic or architecture lovers, may not meet their standards but it will for the tenants, which is how this ultimately will rise. Without the clients or tenants, this might as well be a hole in the ground. With a 51 percent stake via Citadel, the mind was likely made up.

[NOPA]

I like the new design much better. A blank wall is so ick.

[Zerton]

it definitely looks much better than the previous iterations.

[TKD]

Made this early in the morning (based upon how I have understood/interpreted the render)

[NYguy]

That’s excellent, given what we have to work with. One thing about having a tenant driven design, (and especially with the money being thrown around for this one), we’ll get a top quality design.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by TKD

Made this early in the morning (based upon how I have understood/interpreted the render)

I see some similarities to this Foster design (Torre Cepsa)

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by NYguy

From Federal Reserve Bank in Boston to Commerzbank in Frankfurt (Foster) to this, I'm a total sucker for these sort of "picture framed" style of towers.

[The New York Lion]

Originally Posted by JohnMarlborough

This is a beautiful tower. I hope that it gets built. Same with 175 Park. The hotel closing date seems elusive.

I concur.

In time, they will be built.

[MAC123]

It's basically Foster copy + paste.

Boring but not ugly.
Sigh, just wish the other design could have happened.

[NYguy]

This should help cover space while the two buildings are demolished…


https://therealdeal.com/new-york/202...-280-park-ave/

Ken Griffin’s Citadel eyeing big office lease at 280 Park Ave
Hedge funder said to be in talks to occupy a third of the SL Green, Vornado tower


JUN 21, 2023

Griffin’s hedge fund Citadel is in talks to take 400,000 square feet at 280 Park Avenue, Crain’s reported, citing two unnamed sources. Such a move would be a boon to the city’s two largest commercial landlords, SL Green and Vornado Realty Trust, which co-own the 1.2 million-square-foot tower.

Whether or not the lease actually happens remains to be seen, and there are reasons to be skeptical. After signing a short-term sublease for 24,000 square feet at 520 Madison Avenue a few years ago, Citadel is relocating some of its 1,500 New York employees to L&L Holding Company’s new tower at 425 Park Avenue. Citadel signed a record $300-per-square-foot deal for the 47-story tower’s penthouse in 2015, months after the building broke ground.

Then, there’s 350 Park Avenue. This year, details emerged about Citadel’s hopes for a 51-story, Norman Foster-designed tower at the site, where it would redevelop properties leased from Vornado and Rudin Management. Citadel would occupy 54 percent of the property’s 1.7 million square feet, though the project could still be a decade away from coming to fruition.

Finally, there’s Citadel’s broader relocation from Chicago to Miami, where two months ago, Griffin cut ties with Sterling Bay on plans to build the company a new headquarters. Citadel isn’t retreating from South Florida, however, instead choosing to handle some of the work in-house and partner with another developer for the Brickell project.

280 Park Avenue is 98 percent occupied, according to Crain’s, though six tenants are set to leave by the end of the year. Citadel declined to comment to the publication. Vornado and SL Green did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Real Deal.

[Zapatan]

Made this early in the morning (based upon how I have understood/interpreted the render)

Nice rendering!

Basically the new 2WTC but in midtown.

[Rizzo]

Love this design. I'm on board with these new outdoor terraces integrated into skyscrapers

[pianowizard]

I like this iteration more than the earlier ones, but it would look even better without the trees. Hopefully those trees will be toned down in the finished product.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by pianowizard

I like this iteration more than the earlier ones, but it would look even better without the trees. Hopefully those trees will be toned down in the finished product.

The won't be as large as that on the actual building, but it does point out that "park like" space on the terraces that tenants are attracted to these days.