JPMorgan Chase plans 121K office building at Bank of China site purchased for $115M

JPMorgan Chase seeks to build a 121,400-square-foot office tower on a 7,172-square-foot lot at 410 Madison Avenue at the corner of East 48th Street. The bank bought the property from Bank of China in 2020 for $115 million. It has been expected that Chase would demolish and build a new building, and it has slightly more than 100,000 square feet of development potential as of right, as the Commercial Observer reported in 2020.

The size of the new building was disclosed in a land use application filed November 14, 2022, seeking permission from the Chair of the City Planning Commission for the transfer of 13,812 square feet of development rights from  St. Bartholomew’s church at 325 Park Avenue to the 410 Madison Avenue site. The bank paid $312.50 per square foot, according to the application.

The application, filed through the entity JPMorgan Chase, is described as: “A certification… to facilitate the transfer of 13,812 square feet of unused Landmark floor area from St. Bartholomew’s Church, which would facilitate a new [121,400] square foot, commercial development, which is being sought by a private applicant at 410 Madison Avenue in East Midtown, Community District 5, Manhattan.”

“Based on the sales price of the development rights —$312.50/square foot—  a contribution of $863,250 would be made to the Public Realm Improvement Fund in connection with the transfer. This amount is greater than the amount that would be required based on the Public Realm Improvement Fund Development Rights Valuation of $307.45 per square foot… As shown on a survey prepared by Langan Engineering dated May 28, 2020 enclosed with this application, St. Bartholomew’s Church and Community House uses 69,218.2 square feet of floor area, initially resulting in 578,484.8 square feet of available unused floor area at the Granting Site. Pursuant to Application No. N 210219 ZCM, 36,139.4 square feet of floor area has been transferred from the Granting Site to 415 Madison Avenue (Manhattan Block 1284, Lot 21), leaving 542,345.4 square feet of available unused floor area at the Granting Site.”

The existing property

The office building in Midtown East has 58,395 square feet of built space. The property is owned by JPMorgan Chase. The 27 East 48 Street parcel has frontage of 75 feet and is 95 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,164 square feet. The zoning is C5-3 which allows for up to 15 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $15.4 million.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold by Bank of China for $115 million to JPMorgan Chase on June 17, 2020.

The 58,395-square-foot property generated revenue of $3.7 million or $63 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation and $250 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Midtown East, the majority, or 82 percent of the 61.5 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 $3.3 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown East is the most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 15.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 25 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of eight of the 22 commercial properties representing 1,502,504 square feet of the 2,669,978 square feet. The largest owner is SL Green Realty, followed by Silk & Halpern Realty Associates and then Feil Organization. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 285,606 square feet. It is a 285,606 square-foot business (B) building developed by Albert Sanfilippo with plans filed June 30, 2022 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that JPMorgan Chase owned at least four commercial properties in New York City with 3,386,373 square feet and a city-determined market value of $1.3 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, all identified are office properties. They are all located in Manhattan.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 27 East 48 Street, PincusCo identified 11 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those 11 items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on June 30, 2022 for a 285,606-square-foot B building at 415 Madison Avenue. Of those 11 items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit application filed on October 4, 2021 for the $5 million renovation of two-square-foot COM building with zero residential units at 437 Madison Avenue. One of those 11 items was a sale which Top Rock Holdings and RJ Capital Holdings bought one condo unit in the 96,077-square-foot, two-unit mixed-use building (RC) on 609 5th Avenue for $100.5 million from SL Green Realty on June 28, 2022. Of those 11 items, eight were loans above $5 million totaling $467.1 million. The most recent of the eight was Top Rock Holdings and RJ Capital Holdings which borrowed $80 million from Valley National Bank secured by one condo unit in the 96,077-square-foot, two-unit mixed-use building (RC) on 609 5th Avenue on June 28, 2022.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.