[NYguy]

Among the changes, they'll be adding floors and height to the tower...



http://www.nypost.com/p/news/busines...yiLTmEmnzl24tO

Mad about 380 Madison

By LOIS WEISS
March 13, 2013

L &L Holding’s David Levinson dropped some details yesterday about the reinvention of 380 Madison Ave.

Levinson, speaking before brokers at the YM/WREA, said the firm won a beauty contest against seven other contenders and has been hired by ground owner RREEF to overhaul 380 Madison — what will become a 1 million square-foot building on the blockfront between East 46th and 47th streets.

The building was developed by Harold Uris and then redeveloped by Howard Ronson’s HRO International. RREEF bought the ground and Sheldon Solow owns the leasehold, which ends January 2014. Current tenant the United Nations is on track to leave early, Levinson said. Documents show options by the leaseholder to purchase the building have expired.

Levinson said, “380 is being re-imagined” because even if reskinned, “it would not be the forward-thinking building that would attract tenants.”

The biggest risk, he said, would be that “you put a ton of money into it and it’s just another glass-and-steel building in the Grand Central District. You have to deliver a trophy headquarters.”

They are working with architects KPF to literally take out floor slabs and add the removed floor area to the top, bringing more height and views. The engineering is very difficult, and Levinson has hired the Severud Associates team to work on it. One pencil rendering shows the base facade leaning out at an angle over the sidewalk.

It would be easier to tear it all down and rebuild, but the city previously downzoned areas of Manhattan. So if a building is completely torn down, the owner loses the ability to construct the same amount of space.