750 Seventh Avenue
750 7th Avenue | also 1626 Broadway | Times Square | built 1988
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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.
- 1917
An earlier Rivoli Theatre opens on this site as a 2,400-seat movie palace modeled on the Parthenon
Before the office tower, the block held the Rivoli Theatre, which Samuel Roxy Rothafel managed when it opened in 1917. Architect Thomas W. Lamb gave the 2,400-seat house a triangular pediment and a grand colonnade in the manner of the Parthenon. United Artists, the owner, removed those features in the late 1980s, and the theater came down in 1988.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1988
The Rivoli is demolished for a Solomon office tower, while one Broadway holdout never sells
David and Jean Solomon assembled most of the block between Broadway and Seventh Avenue by 1987, and United Artists sold its stake in the Rivoli site to David Solomon in March 1988. Stratford Wallace, who owned a three-story building at Broadway and 50th Street, refused to sell at any price, and his small building stayed in place after the tower went up. The Solomons built on speculation, with no tenant lined up.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1990
Kevin Roche's black-glass tower with spiraling setbacks opens to critics who call it a smokestack or a pyramid
Roche-Dinkeloo's 36-story building has a black glass skin carrying 860 etched-glass panels by Thomas Emerson and setbacks that ascend counterclockwise, ending in an offset glass pinnacle. Paul Goldberger of the New York Times described the tower as "agreeably quirky" and likened its spire to a smokestack, while The Wall Street Journal's critic saw a harsh black pyramid. The tower cost an estimated $150 million.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1991
Law firm Olwine Connelly disbands in the new tower without ever paying rent
In April 1990 the law firm Olwine, Connelly, Chase, O'Donnell & Wehyer became the first tenant, signing a 20-year lease for ten floors. It ended up in six floors at a rent of about $4 or $5 million a year, and 40 of its 110 staff had left by October 1991. The firm disbanded that November having never paid any rent, which left the building completely vacant.
“Olwine Connelly disbanded altogether that November, leaving the building entirely vacant; the firm had never made a single rent payment.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1992
Solomon Equities files for bankruptcy on the tower, and Citicorp and other banks take it over
The first tenant, the law firm Olwine Connelly, signed in April 1990 but dissolved in November 1991 without ever paying rent, leaving the building empty. In January 1992 Solomon Equities filed Chapter 11 on the building, and Citicorp and other lenders took control. The banks leased the old Olwine space to the firm Mendes & Mount in June 1992, and prebuilt small offices drew Ernst & Young in 1993.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1992
Carolines on Broadway moves into the building after stops in Chelsea and the South Street Seaport
Caroline Hirsch opened Carolines as a Chelsea cabaret in 1981, booked Jay Leno as its first comic, and moved it to the South Street Seaport in 1987. In 1992 the club took its final home on Broadway, inside 750 Seventh Avenue. Its A&E series Caroline's Comedy Hour ran six years and won a CableACE award, and a 2003 anniversary gala at Carnegie Hall drew comics from across its history.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1994
Morgan Stanley buys 750 Seventh Avenue for $90 million and moves its technology division in
Morgan Stanley already held 1585 Broadway and wanted more space nearby, so it bought the tower in 1994 for $90 million. It installed the electronic signs that Times Square rules required, and between September 1994 and June 1995 it moved about a thousand technology employees here. After the 1997 Dean Witter merger, the building became part of the firm's Midtown campus.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
Morgan Stanley spreads out of its Times Square towers after September 11
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Morgan Stanley dispersed workers from its Times Square campus to avoid concentrating so many in one area. It sold 745 Seventh Avenue nearby, subleased space elsewhere and bought the former Texaco headquarters in White Plains. By 2004 the firm doubted it would extend its lease for 426,000 square feet at 750 Seventh Avenue, though it ultimately renewed.
“Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, Morgan Stanley dispersed employees from its Times Square "campus" to reduce the risk…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2011
Thirty bidders chase 750 Seventh Avenue, and an offshore investor wins
When Hines put 750 Seventh Avenue up for sale in 2011, interest was reported as through the roof, with 20 to 30 prospective buyers, including bidders from the Middle East and Asia. An offshore investor won. Morgan Stanley still occupied more than 300,000 square feet, about half of the tower, which Hines and General Motors had bought in 2000 for $150 million.
Source: commercialobserver.com
- 2011
An Observer writer likens the black-glass tower to a neighboring Death Star
In an April 2011 article on the tower going to market, Observer writer Laura Kusisto wrote that it had "an uncanny resemblance to the neighboring Death Star". She counted that among its dubious architectural features, alongside a fake glass chimney and an unmistakable sway in a brisk fall wind.
Source: commercialobserver.com
- 2016
Junior's of Brooklyn takes the Times Square restaurant space once held by Ruby Foo's
Ruby Foo's occupied the restaurant space for 15 years until October 2015. In July 2016 Junior's, the Brooklyn eatery known for its cheesecakes, signed a lease for 10,287 square feet and expected to seat 300, with a separate bakery takeout counter. The landlord was a division of the Kuwait Investment Authority.
Source: commercialobserver.com
- 2022
Shinhan Bank leases the entire 26th floor of 750 Seventh Avenue
Shinhan Bank America, the American arm of a bank headquartered in Seoul, signed in September 2022 for the whole 26th floor, 15,279 square feet, on a 15-year lease at an asking rent of $79 a square foot. The deal brought the 561,000-square-foot tower to 91 percent leased. The bank was moving from 12,000 square feet at 600 Third Avenue.
Source: commercialobserver.com
- 2022
Carolines on Broadway holds its last show, citing a steep rent increase from its landlord
In early December 2022 the club's owner said Carolines would shut at year's end, because its landlord, the Kuwait Investment Authority, was about to raise the rent substantially. The club had shut in March 2020 for the pandemic and reopened in May 2021 with federal aid for live venues. Its final show was on New Year's Eve, ending a run that began in 1981.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- 750 Seventh AvenueWikipedia
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