Crédit Agricole CIB Building (formerly the J.C. Penney Building)

1301 Avenue of the Americas | also 123 West 52nd Street, 1301A Avenue of the Americas, 124 West 53rd Street | Times Square | built 1965

Open on the map8 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1964

    January

    Uris Buildings buys the Sixth Avenue parcel for $9 million and builds a 45-story tower

    In January 1964 the Uris Buildings Corporation paid the Astor trust $9 million for a 68,000-square-foot lot on the west side of Sixth Avenue. Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates designed the 45-story tower, which stands 609 feet tall. J.C. Penney became the main tenant, taking more than 800,000 square feet across 33 floors after leaving its offices on West 34th Street.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1977

    J.C. Penney buys the tower for $55 million as its headquarters

    By 1974 J.C. Penney occupied over 1.18 million square feet in the building. In 1977 the company bought it for $55 million to serve as its permanent headquarters. By 1978 it had moved more than 5,000 employees in. The tower was known as the J.C. Penney Building.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1978

    By 1978 J.C. Penney has moved more than 5,000 employees into the tower

    J.C. Penney, which moved in from 330-348 West 34th Street, was first the anchor tenant over 800,000 square feet across 33 floors and held more than 1.18 million square feet by 1974. By 1978 the company had moved over 5,000 of its employees into the building.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1988

    Tishman Speyer and Trammell Crow commission SOM to renovate the emptied tower

    Tishman Speyer and Trammell Crow Company launch a renovation of the emptied tower after buying it in 1988. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designs the plan, which covers asbestos removal, a fresh color scheme for the facade, an expanded and redesigned lobby, and a new plaza with paving, seating, plants and sculpture.

    “…a renovation plan designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill that involved asbestos removal, a new color scheme for the facade, the expansion and redesign of the lobby…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1988

    May

    Tishman Speyer and Trammell Crow buy the emptied tower at auction for $353 million

    In 1988 J.C. Penney said it would move its headquarters to Dallas, leaving the building empty and for sale. That May, Tishman Speyer and the Trammell Crow Company bought it at auction for $353 million. A consortium of pension funds became equity partners and Japan's Sanwa Bank lent $600 million. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill redesigned the lobby and plaza, gave the facade a new color scheme and removed asbestos.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 2002

    A Credit Lyonnais merger gives the building the Calyon name

    The tower took the name Calyon Building from the Calyon Corporation, formed in 2002 when Crédit Agricole took over Crédit Lyonnais and merged its investment banking arm with that of Crédit Agricole Indosuez. The bank was renamed Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank in 2010, and the building is now its U.S. headquarters. Law and accounting firms also lease space.

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 2007

    The tower's offices appear on screen in Michael Clayton

    The building's offices served as a set for two feature films. The comedy Delirious, with John Candy, shot there in 1991, and the legal thriller Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney, followed in 2007. RJR Nabisco once had its headquarters here, and PricewaterhouseCoopers also had its headquarters in the tower before moving to Madison Avenue.

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 2021

    Paramount Group refinances the tower with an $860 million loan

    Paramount Group Inc. receives a five-year, interest-only loan of $860 million to refinance the 45-story tower, reported in August 2021. The lender is not disclosed. The property is a 1.7 million-square-foot office building with 30,000 square feet of retail space, and it was 71.5 percent leased when the loan closed.

    Source: rebusinessonline.com

Further reading

Nearby

All 91 buildings with stories in Times Square