Citadel pays $10M to RFR for air rights, easement agreement for Midtown East supertall

Kenneth Griffin’s Citadel Enterprise Americas paid $10 million to Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding as part of an air rights and easement agreement related to Citadel and Vornado Realty Trust’s construction of a supertall, 1.7 million-square-foot office building at 350 Park Avenue in Midtown East, city records show.

This purchase comes a few weeks after PincusCo reported that Citadel has a contract with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York to buy up to 525,000 square feet of development rights from St. Patrick’s Cathedral at 631 Fifth Avenue for $312.50 per foot.

The specific amount of development rights being assigned to the Citadel project was not specified. RFR did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Citadel said they did not have a comment or explanation of the exact exchange the $10 million represented, only noting, “It’s just part of an overall package for the project.”

In the transaction, RFR Holding through the entity 477 Madison LLC as seller, executed the $10 million transaction with Citadel through the entity 350 Park DV LLC. The transaction is between the RFR Holding office building (O4) at 477 Madison Avenue and small office building (O2) at 39 East 51st Street which is part of the zoning lot for the planned high rise.
The deal closed on December 19, 2023 and was recorded on January 4, 2024.

Thomas Lavin signed for RFR Holding, while Gerald A. Beeson, Citadel’s COO, signed for the development team.

The neighborhood

In Midtown East, The majority, or 81 percent of the 62.6 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 7 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown East has the 2nd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $3.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown East is the 2nd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 14.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 23 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block of 477 Madison Avenue, PincusCo has identified the owners of 10 of the 15 commercial properties representing 1,882,360 square feet of the 2,067,997 square feet. The largest owner is Vornado Realty Trust, followed by Seven Valleys and then Rudin Management.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 95 percent of the 2.1 million square feet of built space are office buildings, with mixed-use buildings next occupying 2 percent of the space.

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