1301 Avenue of the Americas

History

The building was developed by Uris Buildings Corporation and was completed in 1964 and has 45 floors. Uris purchased the 68,000 ft2 parcel on the west side of the Avenue of the Americas from the Astor trust for $9 million in January 1964 (equivalent to $ million in ). Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates designed the building, which is the 123rd tallest in New York City. JCPenney was the initial anchor tenant, occupying over 800,000 ft2 of space across 33 floors after moving from 330–348 West 34th Street. By 1974, the company occupied over 1.18 e6sqft of the building.

JCPenney purchased the building for $55 million in 1977 (equivalent to $ million in ) to serve as its new headquarters. By 1978, JCPenney had moved over 5,000 employees into the building. However, in 1988 JCPenney announced its intentions to move their headquarters to Dallas, leaving the building empty and up for sale.

In May 1988, Tishman Speyer and Trammell Crow Company bought the empty tower at auction for $353 million (equivalent to $ million in ) and began an ambitious renovation. The companies brought on a consortium of pension funds as equity partners and received a $600 million loan from the Japanese Sanwa Bank. The new owners embarked on 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 and the creation of a new plaza with new paving, seating, plants and sculpture.

It is named for the Calyon Corporation which resulted from the merger of Crédit Agricole Indosuez and the corporate and investment banking division of the Crédit Lyonnais corporation as a result of the takeover of the latest by Crédit Agricole S.A. in 2002. Calyon was since renamed Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank in 2010. It used to serve as the headquarters of PricewaterhouseCoopers before they moved to 300 Madison Avenue. It is now Credit Agricole CIB's US headquarters.

In October 2016, Paramount Group received $850 million to refinance the building from AXA Equitable Holdings, MetLife and New York Life Insurance Company. Paramount refinanced the building in August 2025 with a $900 million loan.

Tenants

The building's other tenants include public accounting firm CohnReznick, the law firms Arent Fox Schiff LLP, O'Melveny & Myers LLP, Foley Hoag LLP, Norton Rose Fulbright, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, as well as Barclays.

At one time RJR Nabisco had its headquarters in the building. After RJR Nabisco was separated, Nabisco Group Holdings Corp. had its headquarters in Calyon.

The Calyon Building offices were featured in the 1991 film Delirious starring John Candy and the 2007 film Michael Clayton starring George Clooney.

References

References

1. "Uris Brothers | Companies". Emporis.
2. (January 7, 1964). "ASTOR TRUSTS SELL 6TH AVE. SITE TO URIS". New York Times.
3. (May 27, 1964). "Penney Sells Building On 34th St. to Kratter". New York Times.
4. (September 8, 1974). "News of the Realty Trade". New York Times.
5. Berg, Eric. (March 1, 1988). "Penney to Sell Its Midtown Skyscraper". New York Times.
6. Ettore, Barbara. (August 8, 1978). "Sears to Cut New York Buying Unit". New York Times.
7. Dunlap, David. (August 19, 1990). "Commercial Property: The Old J.C. Penney Building; New Name, New Owners, New Tenants, New Image". New York Times.
8. Kennedy, Shawn. (April 12, 1989). "Real Estate; Former Home Of J.C. Penney Is Renovated". New York Times.
9. (October 11, 2016). "Paramount Completes $850 Million Financing of 1301 Avenue of the Americas".
10. Russo, Anthony. (2025-08-07). "Paramount Group Lands $900M Refi for Manhattan Class A Office Amid Flurry of Leases".
11. (2025-08-08). "Paramount Group Completes $900M Refi of 1301 Ave. of the Americas".
12. "[https://web.archive.org/web/19990202223718/http://www.rjrnabisco.com/annual97/info.htm Investor Information 1997 Annual Report]." [[RJR Nabisco]]. February 2, 1999. Retrieved on December 2, 1999. "Corporate Offices: RJR Nabisco, Inc. 1301 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10019"
13. "[https://web.archive.org/web/19990208020001/http://www.rjrnabisco.com/ Shareholder Services]." [[Nabisco Group Holdings]]. February 8, 1999. Retrieved on December 2, 2011. "Corporate Offices: Nabisco Group Holdings Corp. 1301 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10019"
14. "Latest News - ABA Journal".