NEW YORK CITY—Multiple cement trucks with whirling concrete drums lined up around One Vanderbilt Ave. Every several minutes a thumping sound resonated as concrete was pumped up to build the tower. Eventually concrete will be sent up to construct the top floor, 77 stories in the air.
As of November 1, when a team of journalists took a tour of the SL Green development, 46,933 cubic yards of concrete, 67% of the estimated total volume had been placed, along with 18,780 tons of steel. Upon completion the building will be made with 26,000 tons of steel.
SL Green CEO Marc Holliday had said at an Anchin conference in February all of the construction is being done by union members. With 640 employees working onsite daily, the company reports it's ahead of schedule. The expected completion is in August 2020. On the tour, an SL Green representative said the work is progressing within the budget. Multiple news accounts report this as slightly over $3 billion.
At the conference, Holliday opined that New York's next real estate frontier is vertical. The 1.7 million square-foot building will reach 1,401 feet in the air. Although granted authorization for its height before the creation of the Midtown East rezoning district, One Vanderbilt has come to symbolize a new frontier, one upward of super-tall buildings in the business district.
As part of obtaining the air rights, SL Green is paying $220 million toward the public transit part of the project. The developer is creating a pedestrian plaza between 42nd and 43rd streets on Vanderbilt Avenue. On the ground level at One Vanderbilt, a transit hall will serve as an extension to Grand Central Terminal, providing additional access for the subways and the Long Island Rail Road.
SL Green's leasing is also ahead of schedule with 37% of the space pre-leased, already hitting its 2018 target. The anchor tenant, TD Bank, will have retail on the ground floor and will lease office space within the building. Daniel Boulud's restaurant, Dinex, will also open on the ground floor, with its main dining area on the second floor.
The third floor offers 30,000 rentable square-feet of tenant-only amenity space. The height of the walls are taller than traditional buildings. Thus, the view from the outdoor terrace on the third floor looks out at the top upper level of Grand Central Terminal. This floor will also offer conference rooms and a social meeting space.
The media tour next visited the 11th floor. The podium floors, which are at the lower base levels have larger spaces, some extending for 47,000 square feet. These floors allow for greater flexibility for density of employees. The structure tapers as the floors reach higher into the tower floors. At a construction level, the 33rd floor is referred to as the 44th floor for marketing purposes. This is because due to expansive ceiling height levels, this floor provides the same view of the 44th floor of traditional, surrounding buildings.
The building asking rents are in the range of $140 per square foot for base floors to $200 and up per square foot for upper top levels. Additional tenants who've committed to the building include the Carlyle Group, Greenberg Traurig and DZ/DVB Bank. McDermott Will & Emery has leased floors 44 through 46 and the highest floor leased to date—the 67th floor.
View our photo slideshow to join Globest.com on SL Green's tour and to check out the progress at One Vanderbilt.
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Betsy Kim
Betsy Kim was the bureau chief, East Coast, and New York City reporter for Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. As a lawyer and journalist, Betsy has worked as the director of editorial and content for LexisNexis Lawyers.com, a TV/multi-media journalist for NBC and CBS affiliated TV stations in the Midwest, and an associate producer at Court TV.
