New York Mercantile Exchange Building
1 North End Avenue | also 300 Vesey Street | Battery Park City | built 1997
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1994
NYMEX merges with COMEX and announces a Battery Park City tower
In August 1994 the New York Mercantile Exchange formally merged with the Commodity Exchange and announced a move to Battery Park City, a deal that kept about 8,100 jobs in Lower Manhattan. Plans called for a 20-story, $225 million tower beside the World Financial Center on Vesey Street, due by 1997, with the exchange paying the Battery Park City Authority $50 a square foot in rent. Mayor Giuliani welcomed the new addition to the skyline.
Source: amny.com
- 1997
NYMEX opens its new headquarters and trading floor
The New York Mercantile Exchange moves from 4 World Trade Center into a new Skidmore, Owings and Merrill building here, after its directors had weighed a move to New Jersey for several years. Mayor Rudy Giuliani presides over the ribbon-cutting on July 7, 1997, and the trading floors open for business the next morning.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
After the attacks, NYMEX builds a $12 million backup trading floor outside New York City
The exchange's new Battery Park City building came through the September 11 attacks mostly undamaged, though several NYMEX people were lost. Afterward the exchange spent $12 million on a backup trading floor outside New York City, equipped with booths for 700 traders, 2,000 telephones and a backup computer system.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
The building survives the World Trade Center's collapse with minor damage
The NYMEX headquarters suffers only minor damage when the nearby World Trade Center towers collapse in September 2001. After the attacks, four American flags are fixed to the top corners of the building.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2003
The New York Board of Trade signs a lease to move into NYMEX's building after losing its World Trade Center floor
The Board of Trade's headquarters and trading floor at the World Trade Center were destroyed on September 11, and it had kept running from an emergency Queens facility built after the 1993 bombing. Under the lease, it moved to One North End Avenue and paid about $5 million a year in rent.
“NYBOT signed a historic lease agreement with the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) to move into its World Financial Center headquarters…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2008
CME Group agrees to buy NYMEX for $11.2 billion
Chicago's CME Group signed the deal on March 17, 2008, and the takeover was completed that August. The CME took ownership of the physical facilities, began removing the NYMEX name from artifacts and closed the exchange's museum.
“CME Group signed a definitive agreement to acquire NYMEX Holdings, Inc. for $11.2 billion in cash and stock…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2008
A trader chases the first $100 crude oil price on the NYMEX floor
On January 2, 2008, ConAgra Trade Group was the first to buy NYMEX crude oil futures at $100 a barrel, a milestone price traders call a print. The CFTC later found that the firm told its floor broker to buy every contract on offer at $99.90 to keep the $100 print in place, even though the electronic market was about 40 cents lower. Another floor trader complained to exchange officials that his offer to sell at $99.90 had been violated, and the NYMEX Floor Committee took the print off the price register. In 2010 the firm paid a $12 million penalty.
Source: cftc.gov
- 2012
The art gallery inside the building ends its run with a solo show by painter Terry Ward
An art gallery long located in the exchange building showed world and community art until 2012. Its last exhibit was a solo show by the painter Terry Ward.
“The WTC/WFC art gallery, long located in the Nymex building, continued showing world and community art until 2012…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2013
Brookfield buys the NYMEX building from CME Group for $200 million
On November 26, 2013, Brookfield Office Properties announced that it had bought the building at One North End Avenue from CME Group for $200 million. CME leased back about 449,000 square feet for two years, then planned to shrink to roughly 220,000 square feet on floors two through eight, including the NYMEX trading floor, for another 13 years. Brookfield, which owns the neighboring Brookfield Place, intended to fold the building into that eight-building complex.
Source: commercialobserver.com
- 2015
Engineering News-Record names the NYMEX building renovation a 2015 best project
Engineering News-Record honored the NYMEX building's renovation in its 2015 Best Projects awards. Floors two through six got infrastructure and HVAC upgrades, while the seventh and eighth floors became a column-free open office with under-floor cooling and an eighth-floor mezzanine, and a ninth floor was built. Two separate design teams worked in the building at once, and the 170,000-square-foot job was finished in 10 months while the building stayed in operation.
Source: enr.com
- 2016
The last open-outcry trading pit closes after the final session
Trading had been mostly electronic since 2006, when NYMEX teamed with the CME to use Globex and the pits emptied as traders left. A small pit of shouting, hand-signaling traders remained until trading ended on Friday, December 30, 2016, when the exchange shut it permanently because volume had shrunk.
“NYMEX closed the pit permanently at the end of trading Friday, December 30, 2016, because of shrinking volume.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- One North End AvenueWikipedia
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