399 Park Avenue

History

The building lot was assembled by Vincent Astor who initially planned to build a 46-story Astor Plaza on the site. Astor had problems completing the assembly of the lots of mostly residential buildings as a pharmacy held out. In 1974, the company opened the Citigroup Center annex across Lexington to the east. In 1987, Citigroup sold one third of its interest in the building along with two-thirds of its interest in Citigroup Center to Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Insurance Company for $670 million. At the time, Citigroup said it was moving many of its offices to One Court Square in Long Island City, Queens. Citigroup moved out of the top two thirds of the building but kept the lower floors. Citigroup later bought back its interest in the building.

In 2002, Boston Properties bought the building for $1.06 billion beating out other bidders including Brookfield Properties, Equity Office Properties, Vornado Realty Trust, RFR Holdings, and the Paramount Group. Boston Properties paid over $630 per square foot, which was the highest price ever paid for an office building at the time. Boston also bought the nearby Citigroup Center. Citigroup then leased its headquarters from Boston Properties through 2017. After the September 11 attacks damaged much of their headquarters at Brookfield Place, Lehman Brothers leased 400,000 sqft in the building until their 2008 bankruptcy. Other former tenants included law firms Caplin & Drysdale, which moved to 600 Lexington Avenue and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, which moved to 7 World Trade Center.

In December 2013, Citigroup announced it would relocate its global headquarters to 388 and 390 Greenwich Street in Tribeca, a complex it had purchased from SL Green Realty in 2016.

Tenants

• Avenue Capital Group
• Brigade Capital Management, 37,430 sqft on 15th and 16th floors
• BentallGreenOak
• Blue Owl
• Citigroup
• Colony NorthStar
• Cyrus Capital Partners
• C. V. Starr & Co., 211,000 sqft
• Jordan Company, 25,000 sqft
• Lexington Partners, 48,000 sqft on 20th and 21st floors
• Millennium Management, LLC, 300,000 sqft
• Moelis & Company
• Peterson Management, 40,000 sqft
• PineBridge Investments
• Robins Kaplan LLP, 38,000 sqft
• Savills, 91,000 sqft on 11th and 5th floor

References

• in-Arch.net profile

References

1. Dailey, Jessica. (March 31, 2015). "Citigroup Plans Glassy Makeover for New Greenwich Street HQ".
2. Berg, Eric N.. (October 3, 1987). "Citicorp Selling Part Offers Headquarter". The New York Times.
3. Weiss, Lois. (August 29, 2002). "MORT MAKES $1.5B TOP BID FOR 399 PARK AVE.". New York Post.
4. Cuozzo, Steve. (October 13, 2009). "Boston plays lease hardball". New York Post.
5. Slade, Margot. (October 29, 1993). "Small Firms Flock to Big-Time Street". New York Times.
6. (July 16, 2012). "WilmerHale Moves to State-of-the-Art, LEED-Certified Offices at 7 World Trade Center". WilmerHale.
7. Baird-Remba, Rebecca. (January 31, 2019). "Private Equity Firm Renews at Boston Properties' 399 Park". Commercial Observer.
8. Hallum, Mark. (September 14, 2022). "Blue Owl Capital Inks 138K-SF Lease in Seagram Building".
9. Geiger, Daniel. (May 11, 2012). "Citibank Renews 500,000 SF Lease". Commercial Observer.
10. "NorthStar Securities".
11. Bockmann, Rich. (August 5, 2016). "Insurer renews, expands to 211K sf on Park Avenue". The Real Deal.
12. Geiger, Daniel. (August 9, 2012). "The Jordan Company Completes 399 Park Lease". Commercial Observer.
13. Rizzi, Nicholas. (February 12, 2020). "Private Equity Fund Moving to 48K SF at 399 Park Avenue". Commercial Observer.
14. Rizzi, Nicholas. (December 26, 2018). "Asset Manager Millennium Management Nabs 300K SF at 399 Park Avenue". Commercial Observer.
15. Rubinstein, Dana. (August 24, 2009). "Ken Moelis' Newish I-Bank Signs Robust Lease at Mort Zuckerman's 399 Park". New York Observer.
16. Baird-Remba, Rebecca. (November 6, 2017). "Wealth Management Firm of Blackstone Co-Founder Moves Within Midtown". Commercial Observer.
17. "Former AIG Branch Moving HQ to 399 Park Ave.".
18. Cullen, Terence. (February 24, 2017). "Robins Kaplan Signs Sublease at Boston Properties' 399 Park Avenue". Commercial Observer.
19. Geminder, Emily. (October 13, 2009). "Boston Properties Woos Studley to 399 Park for New HQ". New York Observer.