245 Park Avenue
also 121 East 46th Street, 108 East 47th Street, 118 East 47th Street | East Midtown | built 1966
Open on the map11 entries
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.
- 1911
The 13-story Grand Central Palace exhibition hall opens on the site of 245 Park Avenue
The 13-story Grand Central Palace opened on May 19, 1911, on Lexington Avenue's west side, between 46th and 47th Streets, where 245 Park Avenue now stands. Warren and Wetmore and Reed and Stem, the Grand Central Terminal architects, designed it over the railroad tracks leading to the terminal, and it was the first building conceived as part of the Terminal City development. It served as the city's main exposition hall until 1953.
“A new 13-story building was opened on May 19, 1911.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1918
The government turns the Grand Central Palace into a hospital for soldiers returning from Europe
In August 1918 the U.S. government rented the Grand Central Palace from the du Pont-led syndicate that held its lease, and in September it opened as Disembarkation Hospital No. 5 for American troops coming back from the war. The government gave the building back to its lessees in April 1919.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1936
Organizers fit a log-rolling pool inside the Grand Central Palace for the Sportsmen's Show
Grand Central Palace hosted trade shows of every kind in its four decades as New York's main exhibition hall, from flower, poultry and dog shows to boat, plastics and beauty-shop conventions. Its main floors were big enough that the 1936 Sportsmen's Show could build a pool inside for log-rolling contests, a spectacle that Times writer David Dunlap later recalled.
Source: cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com
- 1942
The Grand Central Palace becomes an Army induction center
In October 1942 the Army converted the Grand Central Palace into an induction center, replacing the one on Governors Island. More than half a million soldiers were inducted there, and the last fourteen were processed in September 1945, soon after which the center closed.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1951
A poultry show leaves Grand Central Palace all a-cackle and a woman wearing a pheasant as a hat
On January 4, 1951, The New York Times marked a poultry show at Grand Central Palace, with about 7,200 entrants, with a headline playing on cackling and a photograph of a young woman, Florence Awe, wearing a Lady Amhurst's pheasant on her shoulder as a hat. David Dunlap later pointed to the pun-filled headlines the hall's shows inspired.
Source: cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com
- 1967
Shreve, Lamb and Harmon's tower replaces the Grand Central Palace
The second Grand Central Palace exhibition hall was demolished in 1964 to make way for 245 Park Avenue. Uris Buildings Corporation developed the 648-foot, 48-story tower, which was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon and completed in 1967. It holds about 1.7 million square feet of space.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1987
Bear Stearns leases 500,000 square feet for its new headquarters
Investment bank Bear Stearns signed a lease for more than 500,000 square feet in the tower in 1987. It moved about 3,000 employees there to make 245 Park Avenue its new headquarters, and the building carried the Bear Stearns name at one point.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2000
JPMorgan Chase leases 580,000 square feet at 245 Park, creating a campus with its nearby headquarters
JPMorgan Chase took a lease on 580,000 square feet in 245 Park Avenue in November 2000. The space gave the bank a corporate campus together with its headquarters nearby at 270 Park Avenue.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2017
China's HNA Group agrees to buy the tower for $2.21 billion
On March 20, 2017, Chinese conglomerate HNA Group announced a deal to buy 245 Park Avenue for $2.21 billion from Brookfield Property Partners and the New York State Teachers' Retirement System. It was one of the highest prices ever paid for a New York skyscraper.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2022
SL Green takes the tower in the wake of HNA's bankruptcy
On September 12, 2022, SL Green announced it had acquired the 1.8 million-square-foot tower, closing a long dispute with the Chinese conglomerate HNA Group. Lenders agreed to leave $1.8 billion in mortgage and mezzanine loans in place, and SL Green, still chasing a $185 million arbitration award, called the building its next major development project, planning new lobbies, plaza and retail with Kohn Pedersen Fox.
Source: therealdeal.com
- 2024
Owners renovate 245 Park with a golf lounge and rooftop as two big tenants move out
By mid-2024 the owners were adding a golf lounge, a restaurant, a wellness center and a rooftop for tenants, in a renovation by Kohn Pedersen Fox and Fogarty Finger. The building's mortgage was flagged as a "loan of concern" since two big tenants were moving out. In late 2024 SL Green announced plans to renovate the plaza.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- 245 Park AvenueWikipedia
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