The future of New York City's art deco icon the Chrysler Building is in the spotlight again after its land owner hired a brokerage to sell the property.
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art has engaged Savills to market the near-century-old tower, Savills Executive Vice President of Capital Markets Group David Heller told CoStar News, declining to specify the asking price and other details.
The private college, the ground lessor for the landmarked skyscraper, took control of the property this year. A New York court previously ruled that RFR, which assumed the ground lease in 2019, failed to pay some $21 million in rent since May 2024.
The children of Peter Cooper, who established the school in 1859, transferred the land where the building sits at 405 Lexington Ave. by 42nd Street to Cooper Union in 1902.
Commercial real estate newsletter The Promote earlier reported the planned sale, noting that the property presents “a daunting prospect for any buyer.” An RFR entity was ordered in April to pay Cooper Union over $18.81 million and return all leases, security deposits and other items, the Commercial Observer reported.
Cooper Union didn't respond to a CoStar News request seeking comment. RFR declined to comment.
RFR has said it’s invested more than $150 million in preventing the building, “an icon of the New York City skyline,” from “deteriorating and falling into disrepair and decline” amid the COVID-19 pandemic’s “deleterious economic effects” and the remote working trend.
The million-plus-square-foot Chrysler Building, completed in 1930 and once the tallest building in the world, was designated a New York landmark by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1978. The commission at the time described it as a “stunning statement in the art deco style by architect William Van Alen” and said it “embodies the romantic essence of the New York City skyscraper.”
Its vacancy rate was climbing even before the arrival of COVID-19 — from a low of 5.3% in the fourth quarter of 2014 to almost 29% in the fourth quarter of 2019. The rate then shot up to almost 38% in the first quarter of 2022, two years into the pandemic, before declining to 12.6% this quarter, according to CoStar data.
While that’s lower than what CoStar data shows as the near 15% vacancy rate in the Grand Central market overall, the rate at the property, with a direct connection to the Grand Central transit hub, is in sharp contrast to the fully occupied One Vanderbilt, developed by Manhattan’s largest office landlord, SL Green Realty, on the other side of Grand Central Terminal.
The market asking rent at the Chrysler Building is about $80.51 per square foot, in contrast to One Vanderbilt’s $216 per square foot, CoStar data shows.
Industry professionals have said the Chrysler Building needs work and faces challenges such as small floor plates with columns that aren’t appealing to today’s corporate tenants.