Chrysler Building’s leasehold still leaves questions about landmark’s future

Steve Cuozzo Sun, October 11, 2026 at 9:56 PM UTC

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Chrysler Building's leasehold still leaves questions about landmark's future

Tishman Speyer’s Chrysler Building leasehold acquisition from landowner Cooper Union and a $235 million investment augur a bright future for the long-troubled landmark.

But missing from last week’s news was the fate of the Trylons at 145-155 E. 42nd Street. A highly visible part of what was known as “Chrysler Center,” the Philip Johnson-designed annex to the Chrysler tower was built shortly before 9/11 by Tishman Speyer during its earlier leasehold control that ended in 2019.

The Trylons were once home to steakhouse Capital Grille but went dark a few years ago.

RFR developer Aby Rosen, who held the Chrysler Building leasehold until early last year, told us at the time that he bought the Trylons outright from Cooper Union and said he planned to replace them with a new, 100,000 square-foot building.

Tishman Speyer acquired the Chrysler Building leasehold from landowner Cooper Union last week. Paul – stock.adobe.com

But RFR’s Gabriel Rosen said it’s now for sale via CBRE.

Meanwhile, the Chrysler Building’s own storefronts remain depressingly empty on both Lexington Avenue and East 42nd Street except for a Chase bank branch.

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An aerial panoramic view shows upper Manhattan from the Empire State Building by night in New York. travelview – stock.adobe.com

Let’s hope Tishman Speyer, which owns Rockefeller Center and knows a thing or two about attracting stores, will make reviving the Chrysler tower shops a priority, not an afterthought, in its restoration.The entire pedestrian-mobbed Lexington/42nd Street corner looks awful at sidewalk level. Not only are Chrysler’s storefronts near-vacant, but so are the scaffold-shrouded retail spaces of the Chanin Building across the street and in the Grand Hyatt Hotel, which is possibly being prepped for redevelopment.

Such prominent black holes – including huge empties between Second and Lexington avenues and north of the Waldorf-Astoria on Lexington – continue to blight sidewalks despite rosy retail surveys from leading brokerages.

RFR developer Aby Rosen has said he bought the Trylons from Cooper Union and plans to replace them with a 100,000-square-foot building. Stefano Giovannini

Third-quarter retail reports from both CBRE and JLL cover “premier” corridors but omit portions of certain avenues and streets where storefronts, some of them huge, stand inexplicably near-vacant.

To be sure, Madison Avenue from 59th to 72nd streets and almost everywhere in Soho have few vacancies. Both asking and taking rents rose across the board.

The Chrysler Building is a 1,046-foot-tall, Art Deco-style skyscraper in East Midtown of Manhattan. Daniel Meunier – stock.adobe.com

The surveys revealed large deals that weren’t previously reported — UGG at 620 Fifth Ave.,  Mexican restaurant group Casa Carmen at 437 Madison Ave. and Crunch Fitness in the long-vacant former Marshall’s at 2192 Broadway at West 78th Street.

The quarter’s largest single deal was TJ Maxx’s  29,000 square-foot lease at 150 E. 86th St., former home to H&M. Upper East Siders were also delighted that sportswear brand Cotton On will fill  a nearly 10,000 square-foot vacancy at 1149 Third Ave. at East 68th St.

But the retail-leasing energy reported by CBRE and JLL isn’t everywhere, as anyone out for a stroll can see.

The Chrysler Building’s famed eagle gargoyles on the 61st floor. Peter Foley/EPA/Shutterstock

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Source: “AOL Money”