Helmsley Building
230 Park Avenue | also 71 Vanderbilt Avenue, 66 East 46th Street | East Midtown | built 1929
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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.
- 1924
The railroad and the city agree to one building astride Park Avenue
In 1924, after five years of negotiation, New York Central dropped its plan for two buildings of about 21 stories each on either side of Park Avenue and proposed a single large one over the avenue instead. In exchange for the variances it needed, city officials asked for Vanderbilt Avenue to be extended two blocks north of 45th Street. The railroad also agreed to improve the elevated drive on the west side of Grand Central and add a companion drive on the east, so traffic could flow through the base of the new tower.
“…city officials requested, and received from the railroad, the extension of Vanderbilt Avenue two blocks north of its former terminus at 45th Street…”
- 1927
Crews anchor the last foundation pier over a rail yard running 700 trains a day
On May 19, 1927, 350 men from the James Stewart Construction Company finished sinking the tower's steel piers 50 feet into the ground. Work went on above two levels of electrified tracks carrying more than 700 trains a day, so the engineers staggered the frame and carried the upper columns on girders spanning the lower tracks. Lead and asbestos mats and four-inch cork tubes shielded the structure from train vibration, and the foundations and ground floor alone took over 9,000 tons of steel.
“350 men from the James Stewart Construction Company anchored the last of the New York Central Building's steel piers 50 feet into the ground…”
- 1928
The last rivet is driven into the tower hours after Chauncey Depew dies
On April 5, 1928, workers drove the last rivet into the 34-story steel frame of the New York Central Building. It happened only hours after Chauncey Depew, who chaired the railroad's board of directors, died. A temporary certificate of occupancy followed in late December, and construction operations formally ended on September 25, 1929.
“…on April 5, 1928 -- just hours after the death of Chauncey Depew ... the last rivet was driven into the 34-story steel frame…”
- 1929
The tower's gilded roof is lit for the first time and glows across the skyline
On the evening of January 21, 1929, floodlights lit all four sides of the New York Central Building's tower for the first time. Most of the 100,000 candlepower went to the roof, sheathed in nearly 300,000 pounds of gold and copper, while a glass ball in the cupola held a 6,000-watt lantern with reflectors meant to work like a coastal lighthouse. Railroad officials were pleased that the glow could be seen for miles up Park Avenue and from New Jersey and Brooklyn.
- 1929
New York Central's executives move from 466 Lexington Avenue into the top floors
In March 1929, seven months before the stock market crash, New York Central's executives left the railroad's corporate offices at 466 Lexington Avenue and moved into the top three floors of the new building across the street. The Landmarks Preservation Commission calls the 34-story tower the crowning achievement of the railroad's redevelopment around Grand Central, and the railroad's trade journal predicted it would become one of the city's landmarks.
“…in March 1929 ... New York Central's executives relocated from their corporate offices in 466 Lexington Avenue into the top three floors of their new namesake building…”
- 1929
Warren & Wetmore's New York Central Building is completed astride the Park Avenue Viaduct
Warren & Wetmore designed the Beaux-Arts tower at 230 Park Avenue as headquarters for the New York Central Railroad. It received a temporary occupancy certificate in December 1928 but was not considered finished until September 25, 1929. Two ramps inside its base carry Park Avenue traffic onto the Park Avenue Viaduct.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1931
Mob boss Salvatore Maranzano is killed in his ninth-floor office
Salvatore Maranzano, a boss of the American Mafia, kept an office on the building's ninth floor, where he worked for the Eagle Building Corporation. On September 10, 1931, hitmen sent by Lucky Luciano and Vito Genovese killed him there.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1958
Two letters are recut and the tower becomes the New York General Building
In 1958, after a multi-million-dollar restoration, New York Central put the building up for lease. Irving Brodsky of the New York Bank for Savings signed a 50-year lease and renamed the building the New York General Building. Stonecutters changed the C and the T on the facade plaque into a G and an E. Harry Helmsley, who owned the building later, said he had made the change to save money.
“…the letters "C" and "T" on the facade's plaque (which originally read "New York Central Building") were chiseled into "G" and "E…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1978
Harry Helmsley renames the tower the Helmsley Building
Harry Helmsley's company Helmsley-Spear bought a major ownership stake in the building in 1977, and the exterior and interior were then restored. After the refurbishment, the building, earlier called the New York Central Building and then the New York General Building, became the Helmsley Building in December 1978. Helmsley said his wife Leona suggested the name.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1982
The sky bridge to 466 Lexington Avenue comes down and Depew Place becomes a pedestrian mall
In 1982 the bridge at 15th-story height that had joined the building to 466 Lexington Avenue across Depew Place was removed, which meant installing four new windows and filling in the wall. That year Depew Place, the private freight lane on the building's east side, was turned from a parking lot into a pedestrian mall. A new freight entrance, steps, and glass-enclosed shops went in along the ground floor, hiding much of the original design there.
“The bridge was removed in 1982, requiring the installation of four new exterior windows and wall infill.”
- 1987
The city designates the Helmsley Building's facade and lobby as landmarks
On March 31, 1987, New York City designated the exterior of the building at 230 Park Avenue as a landmark. Its first-floor interior, including the lobby, most of the elevator banks and the entrance vestibules, was designated as an interior landmark.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1998
Max Capital buys the Helmsley Building for $225 million and agrees never to rename it
In August 1998 Helmsley-Spear sold the building to Max Capital Management for $225 million. The sale terms barred any further renaming. Max Capital hired Skidmore, Owings and Merrill to design a $50 million renovation. From 2000 the arcades were closed one at a time, their advertising boards removed and mezzanines demolished to double the ceiling height. The gilding on the roof was taken off in 2002.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2010
The Helmsley Building becomes the first pre-war building to earn LEED certification
After a renovation in 2010, the Helmsley Building became the first structure built before World War II to earn LEED certification, the green-building rating from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. The tower was built in 1929 with 40 elevators, of which 25 were in use as of 2022. In 2011 the building was sold to Monday Properties and Invesco for $740 million.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2015
RXR Realty buys the Helmsley Building for $1.2 billion and spends $190 million on repairs
In May 2015 the property firm RXR Realty bought the Helmsley Building for $1.2 billion. RXR then spent $190 million renovating the facade and the bathrooms. The deal followed a string of sales: Istithmar paid $705 million in 2005, Goldman Sachs paid more than $1 billion in 2007, and Monday Properties and Invesco paid $740 million in 2011.
“The Helmsley Building was sold once again in May 2015 to property firm RXR Realty for $1.2 billion.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Helmsley BuildingWikipedia
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