399 Park Avenue

399 Park Avenue is a 41-story office building that occupies the entire block between Park Avenue and Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street and 54th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was the world headquarters of Citigroup from 1961, when it moved from 55 Wall Street, until 2015, when the company moved to 388 Greenwich Street.^[1]

399 Park Avenue
399 Park Avenue from the ground; 601 Lexington Avenue is at right.
General information
Status	Completed
Type	Office
Coordinates	40°45′33″N 73°58′18″W / 40.759184°N 73.971763°W / 40.759184; -73.971763
Completed	1961
Owner	Boston Properties
Height
Roof	524 ft (159.7 m)
Top floor	470 ft (143 m)
Technical details
Floor count	41
Floor area	1,700,000 square feet (160,000 m^2)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Carson & Lundin; Kahn & Jacobs
Developer	First National Bank

History

The building lot was assembled by Vincent Astor who initially planned to build a 46-story Astor Plaza on the site. Astor had problems completing the assembly of the lots of mostly residential buildings as a pharmacy held out. In 1974, the company opened the Citigroup Center annex across Lexington to the east. In 1987, Citigroup sold one third of its interest in the building along with two-thirds of its interest in Citigroup Center to Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Insurance Company for $670 million. At the time, Citigroup said it was moving many of its offices to One Court Square in Long Island City, Queens. Citigroup moved out of the top two thirds of the building but kept the lower floors.^[2] Citigroup later bought back its interest in the building.

In 2002, Boston Properties bought the building for $1.06 billion beating out other bidders including Brookfield Properties, Equity Office Properties, Vornado Realty Trust, RFR Holdings, and the Paramount Group.^[3] Boston Properties paid over $630 per square foot, which was the highest price ever paid for an office building at the time. Boston also bought the nearby Citigroup Center. Citigroup then leased its headquarters from Boston Properties through 2017. After the September 11 attacks damaged much of their headquarters at Brookfield Place, Lehman Brothers leased 400,000 square feet (37,000 m²) in the building until their 2008 bankruptcy.^[4] Other former tenants included law firms Caplin & Drysdale, which moved to 600 Lexington Avenue and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, which moved to 7 World Trade Center.^[5][6]

In December 2013, Citigroup announced it would relocate its global headquarters to 388 and 390 Greenwich Street in Tribeca, a complex it had purchased from SL Green Realty in 2016.

Tenants

• Avenue Capital Group
• Brigade Capital Management, 37,430 square feet (3,477 m²) on 15th and 16th floors^[7]
• BentallGreenOak
• Blue Owl^[8]
• Citigroup^[9]
• Colony NorthStar^[10]
• Cyrus Capital Partners
• C. V. Starr & Co., 211,000 square feet (19,600 m²)^[11]
• Jordan Company, 25,000 square feet (2,300 m²)^[12]
• Lexington Partners, 48,000 square feet (4,500 m²) on 20th and 21st floors^[13]
• Millennium Management, LLC, 300,000 square feet (28,000 m²)^[14]
• Moelis & Company^[15]
• Peterson Management, 40,000 square feet (3,700 m²)^[16]
• PineBridge Investments^[17]
• Robins Kaplan LLP, 38,000 square feet (3,500 m²)^[18]
• Savills, 91,000 square feet (8,500 m²) on 11th and 5th floor^[19]

References

•  New York City portal

1. Dailey, Jessica (March 31, 2015). "Citigroup Plans Glassy Makeover for New Greenwich Street HQ". Curbed NY. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
2. Berg, Eric N. (October 3, 1987). "Citicorp Selling Part Offers Headquarter". The New York Times. Retrieved September 4, 2009.
3. Weiss, Lois (August 29, 2002). "MORT MAKES $1.5B TOP BID FOR 399 PARK AVE". New York Post.
4. Cuozzo, Steve (October 13, 2009). "Boston plays lease hardball". New York Post.
5. Slade, Margot (October 29, 1993). "Small Firms Flock to Big-Time Street". New York Times.
6. "WilmerHale Moves to State-of-the-Art, LEED-Certified Offices at 7 World Trade Center". WilmerHale. July 16, 2012.
7. Baird-Remba, Rebecca (January 31, 2019). "Private Equity Firm Renews at Boston Properties' 399 Park". Commercial Observer.
8. Hallum, Mark (September 14, 2022). "Blue Owl Capital Inks 138K-SF Lease in Seagram Building". Commercial Observer. Retrieved October 17, 2022.
9. Geiger, Daniel (May 11, 2012). "Citibank Renews 500,000 SF Lease". Commercial Observer.
10. . Archived from the original on July 15, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
11. Bockmann, Rich (August 5, 2016). "Insurer renews, expands to 211K sf on Park Avenue". The Real Deal.
12. Geiger, Daniel (August 9, 2012). "The Jordan Company Completes 399 Park Lease". Commercial Observer.
13. Rizzi, Nicholas (February 12, 2020). "Private Equity Fund Moving to 48K SF at 399 Park Avenue". Commercial Observer.
14. "Asset Manager Millennium Management Nabs 300K SF at 399 Park Avenue". Commercial Observer. December 26, 2018.
15. Rubinstein, Dana (August 24, 2009). "Ken Moelis' Newish I-Bank Signs Robust Lease at Mort Zuckerman's 399 Park". New York Observer.
16. Baird-Remba, Rebecca (November 6, 2017). "Wealth Management Firm of Blackstone Co-Founder Moves Within Midtown". Commercial Observer.
17. "Former AIG Branch Moving HQ to 399 Park Ave".
18. Cullen, Terence (February 24, 2017). "Robins Kaplan Signs Sublease at Boston Properties' 399 Park Avenue". Commercial Observer.
19. Geminder, Emily (October 13, 2009). "Boston Properties Woos Studley to 399 Park for New HQ". New York Observer.