SL Green’s first big Hudson Yards-area investment is paying off even before the deal’s officially done.
First Republic Bank has signed a lease for 212,000 square feet at 460 W. 34th St., a 20-story, 638,000-square-foot office tower, which the developer-landlord will soon control.
It’s all expansion for the bank, which is currently at Rockefeller Center and other Midtown locations.
SL Green is to close in May on the purchase of the majority stake in the building from the Kaufman Organization, which will retain a minority interest. The contract, signed in December, values the property at $440 million.
The bank, led by founder and CEO Jim Herbert, will be the anchor tenant, with corporate offices on the second through sixth floors, plus part of the ground and mezzanine floors for two retail branches.
The former Masters Printing Building evokes the district’s industrial and manufacturing past. It fills the whole Tenth Avenue east blockfront between West 33rd and 34th streets, across from Related Companies’ Hudson Yards and Brookfield’s Manhattan West complexes.
It stands amid a cluster of other new projects as well, including Tishman Speyer’s Spiral skyscraper and a soon-to-open Marriott Courtyard Hotel.
SL Green plans to give the redeveloped 460 W. 34th St. a “very Midtown South-style creative vibe,” said Executive Vice President Steven Durels. Work is to start later this spring and be finished by the end of 2021.
Most visibly from outside, the weathered masonry facade will be re-tinted but retain its original character.
“It will look radically different but still reflect its historical heritage,” Durels said, “a contrast with the new neighborhood that’s full of glass and steel.” Architectural firm MdeAS is working on the new look.
The existing lobby on 34th Street will be moved to 33rd Street, where it will have a glass wall facing Manhattan West, a reclaimed-floor and a coffee bar.
Elevators will be replaced, windows enlarged, and dormant setback terraces restored to use. There will be a new, 5000-square-foot roof deck.
JLL’s Frank Doyle, David Kleiner, Betsy Buckley and Ellen Grace repped First Republic. Newmark Knight Frank’s Brian Waterman, Scott Klau and Eric Harris repped SL Green.