City Officials Break Ground at One Vanderbilt. Image Credit: Office of the Mayor

City Officials and developer broke ground on the new One Vanderbilt office building and $220 million transit upgrade of Grand Central. On October 18, 2016, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Council Member Dan Garodnick joined the developer SL Green for the on-site groundbreaking ceremony. The new office tower will reach 1,401 feet and cover the city block west of Grand Central. The tower is expected to achieve LEED gold certification and contain 1.7 million-square-feet of office space across 58 floors. The One Vanderbilt project met resistance at the Community level but was ultimately approved by City Planning and the City Council with additional concessions by the developer. See CityLand’s previous coverage here and here. (read more…)

Architect’s rendering of One Vanderbilt Place and Grand Central Terminal. Image credit: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

Representatives from the project developers, Grand Central Terminal, and private citizens argued the proposal.  On February 4, 2015 the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on the proposed One Vanderbilt skyscraper project.  The proposed building would be 1,450 feet high and take up a block bounded by Madison Avenue to the west, Vanderbilt Avenue to the east, 42nd Street to the south, and 43rd Street to the north.  The project would also include transit improvements to the overcrowded Lexington Avenue subway station in Grand Central, as well as accommodate the projected influx of riders once the MTA East Side Access program is completed.  On December 11, 2014 Manhattan Community Boards 5 and 6, through the Multi-Board Task Force on East Midtown Rezoning, recommended denial of the project.  On January 29, 2015 Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer gave a conditional approval of One Vanderbilt after negotiating additional community benefits with project developer SL Green.

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