New York's Chrysler Building, an art deco jewel, seeks new owner

The building, affixed with gargoyles, stainless steel design nods to early Chrysler vehicles and a celebrated crown and needle top, has been put up for sale after a New York judge expropriated the property in September 2024 from prior leaseholders who were in arrears.

The famed skyscraper, which began hosting tenants in April 1930 and was once the world's tallest building, continues to draw tourists to its blue-chip address of 405 Lexington Avenue in the heart of Manhattan.

But real estate insiders say the property is badly in need of remodeling, with aging office spaces, tiny windows, fickle elevators and a pesky rodent population among its ills.

"The beautiful (Chrysler Building) has lots of technical issues but it's unclear what the best use for the building is," said Ruth Colp-Haber, a partner at Wharton Property Advisors, who believes costly investment will be needed to update the structure.

"Everything's on hold there until they figure out who's the owner and what's his game plan," she said. "They are not showing spaces."
Cooper Union connection
The Chrysler Building was first envisioned in the roaring 1920s, prior to the 1929 Wall Street crash, and completed in just two years.

It opened with fanfare and hosted an observation deck until 1945. The building stood as the tallest structure in the world prior to the completion of the Empire State Building in 1931.

The land on which the building sits has been owned since 1902 by the Cooper Union, a private college that specializes in art, architecture and engineering.

The school's most recent tenant, a consortium of real estate firm RFR and Austrian firm Signa, had reached an agreement in 2019 to buy the building for $151 million with a promise of $250 million in upgrades.

But Signa filed for insolvency in 2023 and RFR stopped paying rent in May 2024, according to legal documents reviewed by AFP, with the latter owing $21 million when the property was expropriated.

Cooper Union leaders have said the Chrysler Building's travails will not result in higher tuition rates or fewer scholarships.

"We have built important reserves and surpluses over the last seven years," Cooper Union interim president Malcolm King said in a message to employees and students, adding that they had "planned for a range of scenarios, including this one."

Current tenants of the building include prestigious law firms, investment groups and creative agencies.

New York's commercial real estate industry has partially recovered from the pandemic and early post-pandemic period when companies were slow to return to the office.

But the Chrysler Building faces tough competition from newer buildings, like the nearby One Vanderbilt Avenue or the gleaming Hudson Yards structures.

Further complicating the situation is the structure's 1978 designation as a New York City landmark, a distinction that means significant changes must be approved by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Exactly what will happen to the building remains clouded in mystery.

AFP queries to the Cooper Union, the landmark commission and leading real estate brokers went unanswered.

In any case, "it is extraordinarily rare for the commission to approve the demolition of an individual landmark," said an expert who spoke on the condition of anonymity.