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

[ssh]

Good news, but hopefully this doesn't get in the way of 175 Park securing an anchor tenant. Although they might be different completely different markets if 175 Park is really $6.5b, those rents will be astronomical.

[NYguy]

https://therealdeal.com/magazine/march-2025/suddenly-developers-want-to-build-trophy-offices-again/

March 3, 2025

Another project long in the works is BXP’s roughly 1 million-square-foot development at 343 Madison Avenue. That project also needs an anchor tenant, albeit a smaller one.

“I think those folks who can come out of the ground with a really high-quality development will have their choice of high quality tenants,” Hilary Spann, the head of BXP’s New York region, said.

Spann said the big challenge for developers is that the financing market is unsettled, so it can be hard if you don’t have your full capital stack together.

“At 343 Madison, we do [have our stack together] and we’re prepared to move forward as soon as we secure a tenant,” she said.

[NYguy]

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/new-y...-battered-real-estate-market-2025-03-07/

New York workers’ return to office ignites deal hopes in battered real estate market


By Saeed Azhar, Matt Tracy and Carolina Mandl
March 7, 2025

....."The world is moving back to work and back to in-person work, no question about it," said Owen D. Thomas, chairman and CEO of Boston-based real estate investment trust BXP Inc (BXP.N), opens new tab.

"Real estate is a financial asset driven by interest rates, so that's helpful," he added.

BXP is in talks with four to five anchor tenants to build a 46-story tower in Midtown Manhattan, Thomas said.

The commercial project is not far from JPMorgan Chase's (JPM.N), opens new tab new global headquarters, which has space for 14,000 employees and will be completed by the end of this year.

With some of the largest office occupants in the U.S. - such as Amazon and JPMorgan - switching to five days a week of in-person attendance, firms could encounter space shortages after they shed offices over the last five years, JLL Research said in a note.

Amazon is looking for more space in New York, according to a source familiar with the matter. The company declined to comment.

[NYguy]

Keeping an eye on this one (340) as it seems a likely candidate for redevelopment...


https://www.bisnow.com/new-york/news/office/lender-takes-rxrs-340-madison-ave-at-auction-128513

RXR Loses 340 Madison Ave. To Lender At Auction





Ciara Long
March 17, 2025

RXR lost the 22-story office tower at 340 Madison Ave. at an auction Thursday after defaulting last year on a $315M mortgage from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, Barings' parent company, Crain’s New York Business reported.

Barings acquired the 760K SF building from a court-appointed receiver for $161M last week, property records show.

Three prospective bidders contacted the receiver, appointed in December to find a buyer for the property, but Barings was the “only qualified bidder to attend,” per court records reported by Crain’s.

The sale follows months of foreclosure proceedings against RXR, which MassMutual kicked off in May after RXR defaulted on the building's debt. The property is currently 60.6% occupied, according to CoStar data reported by Crain’s.

[NYguy]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/business/office-market-bottom-remote-work.html

Early construction of a 47-story office tower at 343 Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

Dave Sanders for The New York Times

[ChiND]

I yearn for news about 175 Park, and yet this mundane, soulless, glass box seems closer to become a stark reality. Oy vey!

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by ChiND

I yearn for news about 175 Park, and yet this mundane, soulless, glass box seems closer to become a stark reality. Oy vey!

It seems foolish to open this thread looking for news of 175 Park. There’s a whole thread for that.

[ChiND]

Originally Posted by NYguy

It seems foolish to open this thread looking for news of 175 Park. There’s a whole thread for that.

I'm not looking in this thread for news about 175 Park. I'm looking in The Real Deal, Bloomberg, etc.

[BK1985]

I can’t wait to see more renderings once this gets started. I’m hoping that the gold/yellow crown will be lit up the same way it is in the renderings since that is a nice feature.

[NYguy]

^ Seems it likely will be.

Originally Posted by ChiND

I'm not looking in this thread for news about 175 Park. I'm looking in The Real Deal, Bloomberg, etc.

Then there is no reason to comment about it here.

[NYguy]

May 2, 2025

[ajbeaver25]

For some reason the crown of this building reminds me of the crown on top of 50 Hudson Yards.

[NYguy]

https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estat...ts-weigh-plan-developing-343-madison-ave

Rising construction costs weigh on plan for Midtown tower


AARON ELSTEIN
May 12, 2025

Thanks to soaring prices for steel and other commodities, the cost of a Midtown tower has grown to $2,000 per square foot, Goldfarb said. That’s 66% more than JPMorgan paid for its tower nearing completion at 270 Park Ave.
“Even to the big boys, $2,000 a foot is a big number,” Goldfarb said.

Thomas, who teamed up with Norway’s $1.7 trillion sovereign wealth fund to develop 343 Madison, insisted on a recent conference call that work will begin this year.

BXP officials have said rents of $225 per square foot will be needed for the math to work at 343 Madison, a price that only a handful of floors in Manhattan command. Real estate experts say 343 Madison, which is being marketed as a “zero carbon premier workplace” could achieve those rents thanks to its location, just a five-minute walk from the Grand Central clock.

Thomas said BXP has made lease proposals to seven potential anchor tenants and another 10 are “considering” the building.

For now, however, the only work underway is a new entrance for the Long Island Rail Road.

On Monday, 343 Madison’s backers got encouraging news when the U.S. and China agreed to a 90-day truce on their tariff war. BXP shares rose by 4%, and the price fell for copper, though the industrial metal remains 25% higher than 12 months ago.

Tomorrow, BXP president Douglas Linde will make his case that 343 Madison will be worth waiting for. He’ll be interviewed by Bank of Montreal real estate analyst John Kim at the InterContinental Hotel, just half a block from Park Avenue, one of the few corridors left where developers can reliably fill office buildings at top-dollar rents. In addition to the new JPMorgan tower, a plan to redevelop 350 Park into a 62-floor, 1.8 million square-foot headquarters for financial firm Citadel is being reviewed by the Department of City Planning.

343 Madison’s relatively small size means BXP and its partner will need to raise less money than 350 Park’s developers. The question is how deep they’ll dig into their own pockets to pay the estimated $2 billion in construction costs.

[Doubleu1117]

Rooting for this one, since until this one is built and ventilation is added, Grand Central Madison is stuck with ugly temporary white walls and no food options that require heat/ cooking

[ChiND]

I’d really like to see a hotel/condo with a better design than KPF’s mundane tower rise here.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Doubleu1117

Rooting for this one, since until this one is built and ventilation is added, Grand Central Madison is stuck with ugly temporary white walls and no food options that require heat/ cooking

All of the buildings with entrances to GC Madison need to be built to get that station fully functional as it was designed.

[NYguy]

MAY 26, 2025

[NYguy]

https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estat...midtown-new-york-tower-or-without-anchor

BXP plans to develop $2B Midtown office tower with or without an anchor



Aaron Elstein
June 6, 2025

The developer BXP is prepared to start on a new tower at 343 Madison Ave. without a committed anchor tenant in what would amount to a massive bet that demand for high-end Manhattan office buildings will remain strong.
The publicly traded Boston-based real estate investment trust, which also owns the General Motors Building, must notify the MTA next month whether it plans to go ahead with long-simmering plans to build a 46-story, 1 million square-foot office tower next to Grand Central Terminal.

Normally towers of this size rise up only after about half the space is pre-leased. But BXP officials indicated at a dinner Monday with institutional investors that they’re poised to go ahead without such commitments in hand, according to the event’s host. The tower’s estimated cost is $2 billion.

That such a speculative project is even possible speaks to a growing belief that New Yorkers will continue returning to offices, especially if the space is a short walk from Grand Central Terminal. And even if no prospective tenant is quite ready to sign on the dotted line at 343 Madison, demand for space near the commuter hub is so strong that investors have absolutely no doubt that the tower would fill quickly.

“It’s been a fundamental shift in mood,” said Joshua Stein, a top Manhattan real estate lawyer.

BXP, for its part, “certainly” won’t have a lease finalized by the MTA’s July deadline, said Steve Sakwa, an Evercore ISI real estate analyst who hosted Monday’s dinner with BXP executives. Even so, he wrote in a client report about the meeting, “our sense is that the company will move forward with this project on a ‘spec’ basis.”

Work has begun on the site to carve out escalators that would connect the building to Grand Central. If BXP backs out, those construction costs would be reimbursed by the MTA, which is counting on collecting rent by leasing the land. BXP’s 45% partner in the project is Norway’s $1.7 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest.

“It would take five years to develop this tower,” Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Goldfarb said. “But it is literally the best site in Manhattan.”

[Crawford]

Excellent news. So two 800 ft.+ speculative office towers are about to be rising in Midtown.

[ChiND]

I had hoped that we might dodge this one and get a better design from another developer.

This and 570 5th are both quotidian boxes apropos of Pathmark vanilla.

Not only is the design lame per se, but I also cringe at the thought of what the 800' tumor will look like from the east.

While every tower can’t be the caliber of 270/350 Park, One Vanderbilt, Tower Verre, etc., architects, nonetheless, shouldn’t strive for filler.