1 New York Plaza is an office building in the

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, at the intersection of South and

Whitehall Street Whitehall Street is a street in the South Ferry/Financial District neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City, near the southern tip of Manhattan Island. The street begins at Bowling Green to the north, where it is a continuation of the ...

s near South Ferry. The building, measuring tall with 50 floors, is the southernmost skyscraper in Lower Manhattan. It was designed by William Lescaze & Assocs. and Kahn & Jacobs, and developed by Sol Atlas and John P. McGrath. The facade was designed by Nevio Maggiora, consisting of a boxlike "beehive" pattern with the windows recessed within, made of aluminum-clad wall elements resembling a type of thermally activated elevator button popular at the time of construction. There is a retail concourse on the lower level.

History

Construction and early years

In 1959, the City of New York attempted to acquire the land under this development through

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

as part of the

Battery Park The Battery, formerly known as Battery Park, is a public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City facing New York Harbor. It is bounded by Battery Place on the north, State Street on the east, New York Harbor to ...

Urban Renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

Area. The plan involved consolidating several blocks into a " superblock" for

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

. When that plan fell through, the city hoped to entice the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

to relocate to the property. However, the owner of the property—the firm of Atlas McGrath—successfully sued to retain their land, claiming they were more than willing to develop the site privately. Shortly after groundbreaking,

Chase Manhattan Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fi ...

signed a 30-year, $200 million lease for of space across 22 floors in the building. Investment bank

Salomon Brothers Salomon Brothers, Inc., was an American multinational bulge bracket investment bank headquartered in New York. It was one of the five largest investment banking enterprises in the United States and the most profitable firm on Wall Street durin ...

was another early tenant, moving into the building in 1970. On August 5, 1970, the building suffered a fire in which two people were killed and 35 injured. The cause of the fire was a faulty computer connection across from the office of the Townsend-Greenspan firm, which

Alan Greenspan Alan Greenspan (born March 6, 1926) is an American economist who served as the 13th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006. He works as a private adviser and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC. ...

owned. The deaths were caused after an occupied elevator was "summoned" to the burning floor when one of the thermally-activated call buttons—designed to react to a warm finger tapping it—reacted instead to the heat of the fire on that floor. Insurance brokerage Thomson & McKinnon Auchincloss Kohlmeyer signed a lease for on the building's 47th through 49th floors in February 1975. At the time, the building was reportedly 95% occupied. In March 1978, investment bank

First Boston : ''For the company after its acquisition by Credit Suisse, see Credit Suisse First Boston (known as CSFB and CS First Boston)'' The First Boston Corporation was a New York-based bulge bracket investment bank, founded in 1932 and acquired by Cred ...

signed a lease for in the building, relocating from nearby

20 Exchange Place 20 Exchange Place, formerly the City Bank–Farmers Trust Building, is a skyscraper in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Completed in 1931, it was designed by Cross & Cross in the Art Deco style as the headquarters o ...

Chase ownership

In 1989, Chase purchased the building for $140 million. However, in 1991 Chase moved much of its staff from the building to MetroTech Center in

Downtown Brooklyn Downtown Brooklyn is the third largest central business district in New York City after Midtown Manhattan and Lower Manhattan), and is located in the northwestern section of the borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is known for its office and r ...

and Salomon Brothers left for 7 World Trade Center. With the additional loss of Thomson & McKinnon, which had declared bankruptcy, of the building were vacant. Chase renovated the building in the early 1990s, spending $50 million to improve the lobby, elevator cabs and plaza and an additional $50 million on asbestos removal. Shortly afterward,

Prudential Securities Prudential Securities, also formerly known as Prudential Securities Incorporated (PSI), was the financial services arm of the insurer, Prudential Financial. In 2003, Prudential Securities was merged into Wachovia Securities, a division of Wacho ...

signed a lease for over of space in the building. The company received at least $106 million in tax breaks and incentives for the move and invested over $147 million in the space to build a data center, trading floor and special generators to ensure power to the building. Two years later, in 1994, Prudential expanded by leasing another in the building. The same year, Goldman Sachs leased of space in the building.

Trizec Properties ownership

In 1999, Canadian real estate company

Trizec Properties Trizec Properties, Inc., previously known as TrizecHahn Corporation, was a real estate investment trust headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It was originally a Canadian company. The name is derived from the initials of the three groups (Tri) that f ...

purchased the building for $390 million from Chase Manhattan Bank. One New York Plaza's air-conditioning chiller depends on Con Ed's

New York City steam system The New York City steam systems include Con Edison's Steam Operations, and other smaller systems that provide steam to New York University and Columbia University. Many individual buildings in New York have their own steam systems. Con Edi ...

. On August 11, 2001, a steam turbine failed in the basement, and the damage from the resulting explosion disrupted Goldman's market-making NASDAQ activities for the day. In 2003, Prudential Securities was acquired by

Wachovia Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo and Company in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, based on total asset ...

causing the combined company to offer all of its space in the building for

sublease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

. Morgan Stanley signed a lease for of Prudential's former office space in June 2005. The company committed to moving 2,300 employees to the building and received $11 million in tax incentives from New York State. Around the same time, the law firm Fried Frank renewed their space on the building's 22nd-30th floors.

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, a ...

and Goldman Sachs provided a $400 million

commercial mortgage-backed security Commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) are a type of mortgage-backed security backed by commercial and multifamily mortgages rather than residential real estate. CMBS tend to be more complex and volatile than residential mortgage-backed ...

mortgage on the building in 2006. That same year, Brookfield Office Properties acquired Trizec Properties, becoming the new owners of 1 New York Plaza. In April 2012, Morgan Stanley expanded to of space in a lease that runs through 2029. The new space was formerly occupied by Goldman Sachs until it consolidated into the recently completed 200 West Street in 2011. After the expansion, the building was about 85% occupied.

Hurricane Sandy and recent history

In October 2012, the building was heavily damaged by

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...

when an estimated of water flooded the lower levels of the building. The retail concourse was submerged and needed to be completely gut-renovated. Office tenants were allowed to return starting November 17, 2012, and the retail concourse reopened in the winter of 2014. In March 2014, the

National Association of Insurance Commissioners The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is the U.S. standard-setting and regulatory support organization created and governed by the chief insurance regulators from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territor ...

moved their headquarters to a space on the building's 42nd floor. Around the same time,

Revlon Revlon, Inc. is an American multinational company dealing in cosmetics, skin care, fragrance, and personal care. The headquarters of Revlon was established in New York City on March 1, 1932, where it still remains. Revlon was founded by brother ...

moved into on the top two floors of the building that had previously served as Goldman Sachs' trading floors. The same year, architectural design firm Davis Brody Bond also moved into on the 42nd floor, the

National Futures Association The National Futures Association (NFA) is the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for the U.S. derivatives industry, including on-exchange traded futures, retail off-exchange foreign currency (forex) and OTC derivatives ( swaps). NFA is headqua ...

took on the 43rd floor, and WellCare signed a lease for .

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publ ...

signed the largest deal of the year at the building, taking across the 45th through 48th floors for their Science and Education division. After the flurry of deals, the building ended the year 99% occupied. The building's retail concourse reopened in the winter of 2015 after a three year, $14 million redesign. New tenants in the space included Starbucks,

Chipotle Mexican Grill Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (, ), often known simply as Chipotle, is an American chain of fast casual restaurants specializing in bowls, tacos and Mission burritos made to order in front of the customer. Chipotle operates restaurants in the Uni ...

, Chopt, and

Gateway Newstands Gateway Newstands is a chain of convenience stores and kiosks in large office buildings, shopping centres, public places, and transit stations in the United States and Canada. Established in 1983, Vaughan, Ontario-based Tobmar Investments Intern ...

. In March 2016,

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

provided a $750 million mortgage on the building. Two months later, the China Investment Corporation

sovereign wealth fund A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), sovereign investment fund, or social wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as ...

paid $700 million for a 49% stake in the building from Brookfield, valuing the property at over $1.4 billion. At the end of the year, AEW Capital Management acquired a roughly 15% stake from Brookfield for $232.2 million at the same $1.4 billion valuation.

Tenants

Notable former occupants of One New York Plaza include

in its heyday and Goldman Sachs. Current tenants are

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP (known as Fried Frank), is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. The firm also has offices in Washington, D.C., London, Frankfurt, and Brussels, and has more than 500 attorneys w ...

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

Nature Publishing Group Nature Portfolio (formerly known as Nature Publishing Group and Nature Research) is a division of the international scientific publishing company Springer Nature that publishes academic journals, magazines, online databases, and services in scie ...

, and

References

External links

*
Wired New York: The 1 NY Plaza

{{Financial District, Manhattan Brookfield Properties buildings Financial District, Manhattan Office buildings completed in 1969 Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan