Related Files Demolition Plans For 625 Madison, Paving Way For New Luxury Building
Another example of New York City's postwar office building boom is coming down.
The Related Cos. has filed demolition plans for 625 Madison Ave., an office tower that it reportedly plans to replace with a luxury condo and hotel project.
The developer behind Hudson Yards filed plans to demolish the 563K SF, 17-story office tower with the New York City Department of Buildings in late August, Crain’s New York Business first reported.
Demolition work on the interior of the building has already started while the developer expects the full demolition plans to take around nine months to execute, Related spokesperson Natalie Ravitz told Crain’s.
Related went into contract for the property, which also has an address of 613 Madison Ave., from SL Green in December for $632.5M. The deal was one of 2023’s largest, working out at roughly $1,123 per SF.
The change in ownership late last year ended a lengthy saga over the building, which was subject to a yearslong tug of war between ground lease owner Ben Ashkenazy, his business partner Michael Alpert and leasehold owner SL Green.
The developer’s plans for a 1,200-foot skyscraper with ground-floor retail as well as luxury hotel and condo space first emerged in February.
The property was first built in 1956 as Nabisco’s headquarters. It was most recently home to nightclub and restaurant Lavo, which vacated the property in January.
While most of the discourse around what to do about obsolete office buildings has centered around conversions to housing, only about one in six nationwide are considered strong candidates for such transformations.
More owners like Related and JPMorgan Chase, which executed the world's largest voluntary demolition to make way for its new headquarters on Park Avenue, could be looking at taking the wrecking ball to their office buildings to give themselves a clean slate. But the environmental impacts and high cost of building new make it most likely in premium locations like Midtown Manhattan's grand avenues, Bisnow recently reported.
