Tishman Speyer takes 150-year Chrysler Building lease in $235m restoration deal
Tishman Speyer has signed a 150-year ground lease on New York's Chrysler Building and will invest $235 million restoring the art-deco icon's facade and crown, with 75% of vacant floors prebuilt as ready-to-occupy offices.
Tishman Speyer, the Rockefeller Center owner, has signed a 150-year ground lease with Cooper Union for New York’s Chrysler Building and will invest $235 million restoring and modernising the art-deco landmark, on top of its lease payments, Dezeen reports.
The 77-storey, 1.3m sq ft tower at 405 Lexington Avenue — designed by William Van Alen in the 1920s — will have its facade restored and its terraced crown polished and renewed, while the mechanical, elevator, electrical and air-handling systems are modernised, according to the official announcement. Some 75% of vacant or soon-to-be-vacant floors will be prebuilt as ready-to-occupy suites, and the 61st floor — home to the famous eagle gargoyles — becomes an indoor-outdoor amenity space with a clubhouse, terrace and food and beverage offerings, Bisnow reports.
The deal marks a homecoming: Tishman Speyer bought and renovated the tower in the 1990s before selling in 2008, and roughly half the building is currently vacant. The previous leaseholder, Aby Rosen’s RFR, was removed after Cooper Union began eviction proceedings in September 2024 and won a court ruling the following January; the old lease’s escalating rent — $7.75m in 2018, $31.5m in 2024, rising to $41m in 2028 — had helped sink it, the New York Post reports.
A group of institutional investors led by PSP Investments, Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board, backs the deal with 100% equity, Bisnow reports. “We are thrilled to lead this beloved building’s next chapter,” said Tishman Speyer CEO Rob Speyer.
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