NEW YORK | 417 Park Avenue | FT | FLOORS

[Eidolon]

Kushner Companies offers $250M for Park Ave. co-op
By Steve Cuozzo
April 22, 2018

The real estate giant previously run by presidential adviser Jared Kushner has offered $250 million to buy out an entire luxury co-op building – fabled 417 Park Avenue, which until recently was the only residential address on the glamorous boulevard between Grand Central Terminal and 57th Street.

The 417 Park co-op board met on March 28 to discuss a “letter of interest” from Kushner Realty Acquisition LLC offering to buy all 10,000 apartment shares, according to a letter from the board to residents that was seen by The Post. The bid breaks down to an average price of $8.9 million per apartment.
....

The Emery Roth-designed 417 Park Ave., at the southeast corner of 55th Street, opened in 1916. It has 26 apartments on 13 floors behind a stately limestone façade. It converted from a rental to a co-op in 1946 and survived the wave of office construction that wiped out its apartment neighbors.
....

It’s exceedingly difficult, but not impossible, to buy a residential co-op building from its shareholders. Typically, 100 percent of unit owners must agree to any sale offer and to the price. However, 417 Park Ave. requires only a 67 percent majority to sell the property, insiders said.
....

Last week, owners representing 83.6 percent of 417 Park’s shares voted “yes.” Brown Harris managing director Janet Roman could not be reached for comment.

Could be another supertall coming to Park Avenue...

A look at what would be replaced:

[yankeesfan1000]

Nice find on the owners already having voted yes, on what sounds like an unofficial vote. I hope those awful mid century wedding cake buildings across the street come down too, Park has a surprising amount of junk when you go this far north.

Hoping for offices topped my hotel/residential.

[NYguy]

https://nypost.com/2018/04/22/kushne...ark-ave-co-op/

....The Emery Roth-designed 417 Park Ave., at the southeast corner of 55th Street, opened in 1916. It has 26 apartments on 13 floors behind a stately limestone façade. It converted from a rental to a co-op in 1946 and survived the wave of office construction that wiped out its apartment neighbors.

Glamorous occupants include “Scarface” producer Marty Bregman, whose 4,000-square-foot pad has been on the market at $7 million-$10 million for several years but has yet to snare a buyer. “The Exorcist” director William Friedkin once lived there and used his apartment as a setting in several films.

It’s exceedingly difficult, but not impossible, to buy a residential co-op building from its shareholders. Typically, 100 percent of unit owners must agree to any sale offer and to the price. However, 417 Park Ave. requires only a 67 percent majority to sell the property, insiders said.

Several offers to buy out 417 Park Ave. in previous decades went nowhere. What made the building, known as “the holdout,” newly desirable is recent East Midtown rezoning, which would allow a much larger building to replace it if a developer met stringent requirements for public amenities and transit upgrades.

Neighbor getting an upgrade...

https://archpaper.com/2018/03/405-pa...ks-air-rights/

405 Park Avenue buys St. Patrick’s air rights for a glassy upgrade





By JONATHAN HILBURG
March 1, 2018

[chris08876]

It seems like anything Kushner touches doesn't go anywhere. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic with the Kushner touch.

[JSsocal]

The 83.6% Yes Vote is for whether or not the building should get professional real estate advice, not for the sale of the building.

I'd rather keep this building personally. Hope they don't sell.
If it does sell it will almost assuredly be all residential, and will cater to the extremely wealthy. This wouldn't contribute to -making housing more affordable, or -renewing midtown's office space. It comes down to the building. While this building is typical of those uptown, its also 1 of just 5 prewar sites on park south of 57th-GCT. Its good context, its quality materials, and I like the idea of a lone coop holding it out on park avenue. It's a very NY story.

But very glad 405 is getting redone, that should be a teardown though.

[Busy Bee]

^Agree 100%. If they sell and a tower is built it would be brilliant to rebuild the facade at the base. They should be working with a budget where this would be perfectly doable. If they claim otherwise, they're likely lying.

[streetscaper]

I def don't want to see this building go!

[NYguy]

https://nypost.com/2018/04/23/rezoni...rk-avenue-bid/

Rezoning likely inspired Kushner Companies’ Park Avenue bid





By Steve Cuozzo
April 23, 2018

The company, once again being led by founder Charles Kushner, has not said what it might do with the precious site at the southeast corner of Park and East 55th Street. As with other properties in East Midtown, its redevelopment value has soared thanks to a rezoning that allows larger buildings.

“The big story is that East Midtown is ‘back’ because of the new zoning, JPMorgan Chase’s plans to redevelop 270 Park Avenue and SL Green’s One Vanderbilt,” said Cohen. “We expect the start of a new-development wave in the district, which is starving for new construction.”

Cohen speculated that ultimately, 417 and 405 Park “are perfect for a new, blockfront assemblage.”

No. 405 is a 175,000-square-foot office property that was sold last year to Deutsche Bank and MRP Realty. The partners said they plan to add four stories after buying 30,000 square feet of Grand Central air rights.

It's a small site, but the FAR would be 25.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Hudson11

whos next for the chopping block?

AJSNY: Park Avenue Elevation Study

N<>S

Never think about how close 425 Park is to the Seagram Building until you see something like this. Anyway, you can see how small this site would be as is.

[NYguy]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018...-looming-tower


BY WILLIAM D. COHAN
MAY 1, 2018

The Kushners also reportedly have another scheme up their sleeves. They have made a highly unusual $250 million offer to buy the 26-unit co-op apartment building at 417 Park Avenue—the only co-op on Park Avenue between 57th Street and Grand Central in an area replete with office towers—from its shareholders, the people who own apartments in the building. The Kushners’ offer would value each of the co-ops at around $9 million. Their idea, presumably, would be to then raze the building and erect a new office tower on the site, in keeping with the city’s new re-zoning of the neighborhood to allow much taller office buildings than currently exist. (A few blocks further south, JPMorgan Chase will be tearing down its 52-story headquarters and replacing it with a new 70-story office tower.)

Normally, the sale of a co-op is hard to effect, since 100 percent of the owners have to approve the deal—my Wall Street sources say they have never heard of such a thing happening. But 417 Park, for some reason, reportedly only requires approval of two-thirds of the co-op owners; some 80 percent have already said they would support the Kushners’ offer. (The Macklowe family, another New York City real-estate titan, has also made an offer for 417 Park.) One influential real-estate magnate conceded that the move seemed rather clever.

[WhatTheHeck5205]

NO NO NO NO NO. This building should be landmarked now and the air rights transferred to 405 Park it another neighboring site. This isn’t like 270 where the aesthetics of the building are up for debate. This is a limestone, Emery Roth-designed Beaux-Arts gem. You’re kidding yousrself if you think we’ll ever produce buildings of this quality again. Demolishing it would be a Penn Station-level travesty.

F*ck Kushner.

[Busy Bee]

I think the most we can hope for here is a facadectomy. I know they are anathema to many here but I can see it working in this case. Another outlandish idea would be to remove the facade piece by piece and reconstruct the building on a new concrete frame somewhere else in Manhattan.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by PhyllisJerry71

NO NO NO NO NO. This building should be landmarked now and the air rights transferred to 405 Park it another neighboring site.

I think you're misunderstanding the rules behind Landmarks. This will never be landmarked, BTW.

Buildings are landmarked because they're significant or rare. This is neither. They aren't landmarked because they're aesthetically appealing.

[JSsocal]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I think you're misunderstanding the rules behind Landmarks. This will never be landmarked, BTW.

Buildings are landmarked because they're significant or rare. This is neither. They aren't landmarked because they're aesthetically appealing.

^Significant or exemplary of a style, and yes even beauty. There is certainly a case for landmarking this building as indicative of the avenue before it became the commercial thoroughfare its now known for (just take a look at the elevation drawingss of park avenue), it was highlighted in the potential landmarks report a year or 2 ago.

No the issue is whether the LPC will step in and get in the way of big new commercial investment, which would have been a resounding no until the head of landmarks stepped down a couple weeks ago. Now its just a probable no.

[sbarn]

This building should be landmarked.

[chris08876]

^^^^^^^^^^

The stock is quite high if we are talking pre-ww2 buildings. My question is, how is sweet Jesus's name do you expect the city to grow and meet its demand. Its not like land is readily available on an island like Manhattan. There are plenty of land marked structures. You can't restrict most of the city with regards to development. NY is not a museum, it chooses to grow, and to remain the financial capital of the world, it must continue to grow.

And its not like the land marked structures concept doesn't apply now. Existing structures can always be land marked (gain status), but there is a process. This just happens to not be one, and thus, is fair game.

[yankeesfan1000]

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I find this building sort of dull. Outside of what I assume is its Indiana limestone facade, it's not all that interesting.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by yankeesfan1000

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I find this building sort of dull. Outside of what I assume is its Indiana limestone facade, it's not all that interesting.

It's a decent building at best, but people calling for landmark status just goes to show how little credibility is to be had when people call for landmarking something. As if there aren't a thousand such buildings in Manhattan already.

It's possible that the Kushners may not be looking to tear down the building at all...

417 Park, for some reason, reportedly only requires approval of two-thirds of the co-op owners; some 80 percent have already said they would support the Kushners’ offer. (The Macklowe family, another New York City real-estate titan, has also made an offer for 417 Park.)

But it's more likely that they are. Macklowe may be looking to repeat some of the success of nearby 432 Park, and a nice Stern designed limestone tower would make a lot of money here. The Kushners, meanwhile, may want to pick up an opportunity missed with 666 5th Ave, also a few blocks away.

[NYguy]

https://nypost.com/2018/10/09/park-a...-back-in-play/

Park Ave. blockfront suddenly back in play





By Lois Weiss
October 9, 2018

The Park Avenue blockfront between 54th and 55th streets is suddenly in play as the multiplier effect from the JPMorgan Chase tower redevelopment sinks in.

The co-op apartment house at 417 Park Ave. on the southwest corner of East 55th has hired Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan at CBRE to sell the building, sources said, and they could include the rest of the blockfront.

Joseph Moinian tried to buy it in the 2000s. More recently, Kushner Cos. offered $250 million before walking away.

The 1916-era 13-story, 28-unit co-op building could be twice as large under new Midtown East zoning — nearly 200,000 square feet.

The vacant retail store is represented by Robert Burton at Cushman & Wakefield, who is not privy to the board’s sales discussions but noted the area will change for the better when L&L Holdings’ new 425 Park Ave. across the street is completed.

Next door, the Stefano Ricci retail store at 407 Park could add 36,000 square feet to an adjacent project. It was purchased by an Italian company for $8.7 million in 2010. The selling points included the potential redevelopment of all or part of the blockfront.

The store’s lease is also up in April 2019 — just in time for developers.

“The entire block was always the play,” said Adelaide Polsnielli of Compass who represented the seller while with Marcus & Millichap.

To its south, the 19-story 1960s white office building at 405 Park Ave. was also the target of redevelopment.

In 2007, Steve Witkoff, Larry Gluck and a group of developers signed a contract, but the market fell and they lost a $41 million deposit after years of litigation. In 2016, it was sold to Deutsche Bank’s REEF and MRP Realty for $247.7 million.

According to Crain’s, they are now buying air rights from the adjacent men’s club, The Brook, to add four floors on top.

A redevelopment of the entire blockfront, however, could create a tall modern tower of roughly 500,000 square feet.

CBRE, the co-op board, REEF and MRP did not return requests for comment.

[NYguy]

https://therealdeal.com/2018/10/10/b...push-for-sale/

Board of 417 Park Avenue makes another push for sale





October 10, 2018

The owners of 417 Park Avenue are making another push to sell the co-op apartment building after bringing on new brokers.

Under the new Midtown East zoning, the early 1900s building could be doubled in size to 200,000 square feet.

Several other neighboring buildings — including 405 and 407 Park — and the air rights to 11 East 54th Street could also be up for grabs for a savvy investor capable of stitching together a block-long assemblage.