A tower set to become the tallest mixed-use building on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, and the second tallest on the famed stretch after the the Empire State Building, has reached the construction milestone of hitting its full height.
The 1,002-foot 520 Fifth Ave., between West 43rd and 44th streets and near the Grand Central Terminal transit hub, is expected to be completed in 2025, developer Rabina, a New York-based, family-owned real estate investment firm, said in a statement. The tower is expected to feature 88 floors of luxury condos, top-tier offices, a private club, and a 3,500-square-foot retail space.
The property’s residential portion, which began selling in April and includes 100 new luxury condo units rising at least 440 feet above ground, is 72% sold, Rabina’s Senior Vice President and Head of Development Ian Klein said in an interview on a tour of the property Wednesday. Condo prices for units from one to four bedrooms range from below $2 million to over $20 million each, he said.
The residential space will start on the 42nd floor of the roughly 450,000-square-foot building and span the top 40 stories, Rabina has said. The 88th floor at the very top of the building will be used as amenities space for residents featuring a glass-walled solarium, lounge, dining room, library, and game and billiards room with 360-degree views of New York’s landmarks from the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building to Bryant Park and Central Park.
The office portion, which will include 25 full floors of Class A office space below the residential floors, began leasing in September. “We're negotiating quite a few” office leases, Klein told CoStar News, adding “it’s been going very well.” He declined to specify the asking rents and other details.
Different from traditional top-tier office buildings in the city that usually have floor plates of about 30,000 to 40,000 square feet, 520 Fifth’s office space has floor plates from 6,500 square feet to 12,000 square feet, he said, adding Rabina targets a variety of tenants including law firms, venture capital firms, financial services and family offices.
“It allows tenants that have a smaller footprint to still have their own floor and be in a brand-new building, and it's highly amenitized,” he said.
The office space features 12-plus-foot-tall ceilings and private terraces and loggias as well as arched operable windows that allow for natural light and air circulation, Rabina said.
The private club will span a total of five floors, including three above ground and two below, Klein said. The retail leasing has yet to begin, he said.
The skyscraper will stand out not just because of its height. The tower is one of just a few in New York that has residential space built atop office space, James von Klemperer, president and design principal of Kohn Pedersen Fox, which designed 520 Fifth, said in an interview.
He pointed to the Residences at Mandarin Oriental atop Deutsche Bank Center at Columbus Circle as an example.
“It seems like a natural idea, but it's rarely occurring,” he told CoStar News. “In a very small footprint, you have to get all the vertical services and access to two buildings basically in one. … The elevators for the office are only for that purpose. The elevators for the residential are only for that purpose. So side by side, they coexist in the core. … You need two lobbies. … The window systems are different from office to residential. … It's like two buildings in one.”
Still, von Klemperer expects there’ll likely be more of these types of mixed-use buildings in future.
“It's part of this idea of the vertical city, where you can mix uses in the downtown area, the very dense areas,” he said. "It's a very attractive idea for the user, because you have the sense of vitality of different aspects of city life coming into it.”
For the record
Suffolk is the general contractor for the project, whose work involved the initial excavation 80 feet deep into bedrock.
Vicky Charles of Charles & Co. designed the interior spaces.
Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group serves as the exclusive marketing and sales agent for the residences, and JLL is the official leasing company for the commercial office space.