Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced the redevelopment of 5 Times Square in Midtown, Manhattan. The office-to-residential conversion is being designed by Gensler and will transform approximately 917,745 square feet of vacant office space within the 38-story office building into 1,250 rental units, including 313 permanently affordable homes. The transformation, facilitated by the Empire State Development Corporation and NYC Economic Development Corporation, is part of the broader “New” New York Action Plan and Mayor Adams’ “Manhattan Plan,” aiming to create 100,000 new homes in Manhattan over the next decade.
Rendering of 5 Times Square, via 5timessquare.com
Originally built in 2002 as Ernst & Young’s headquarters, the building has remained largely vacant since 2022. Its conversion is enabled by recent policy changes, including the elimination of the 12 FAR residential cap and implementation of the new 467-m tax incentive, which encourages office-to-residential conversions. Notably, the project will preserve 37,311 square feet of street-level retail, maintaining the commercial character of Times Square. Construction is expected to begin by the end of 2025, with the first phase slated for completion in 2027, creating about 1,400 construction jobs and 830 permanent positions.
Photograph of 5 Times Square, via 5timessquare.com
Transit nearby 5 Times Square includes access to 12 subway trains, including the 1, 2, 3, 7, A, C, E, N, Q, R, S, and W.
Photograph of 5 Times Square, via 5timessquare.com
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Cool!
This building looks to have large floor plates. It will be curious if the conversion will disprove the notion that office buildings, built relatively recently with expansive floors along their particular interior arrangements, can not be adapted successfully as residences. If the notion is disproved, things could go gangbusters in Manhattan. I am all for this undertaking.
There are 2 things that can make modern office building conversions difficult. First is large floor plates, and secondly is the core placement within the building. Luckily this building doesn’t have very large floor plates and it still has its elevator core at the center of the floorplate. A lot of modern office buildings put their elevator cores located on one side of the building to open each floor as a larger open space which makes it conversion 100x harder as you cant move the elevator core of a building, and the center of the floors don’t work as residential spaces.
I just can’t imagine living in Times Square. But I guess if priced right, they’ll get tenants.
It will be interesting to see how this conversion unfolds. It’s a chilling thought that a relatively new office building needs to be converted the moment a tenant leaves their long-term lease for new digs. Not sure what this says about the strength of the office market, I guess developers need to price their leases accordingly.
If AI robotics takes over the next problem will be evicting all tenants as we are replaced.
The devil is in the details…the project seeks to create 1,025 studio units, 200 2 bedrooms. The community asked for a broader and more balanced mix of unit types to include studio, I bedroom, and 2 bedroom units accommodating singles, couples, and small families. Unfortunately, the current mix does not encourage community, rather a transient population that will continuously turn over year to year rather than establish roots and foster community. A more diverse mix of unit types could easily house as many, if not more residents in this project and would have better long term housing outcomes.
Depending on how deep the floor plates are, the studios may be alcove studios. Longer units, but no window in the space where the bedroom will be.
Apartments are required to have operable windows. It will be interesting to see how many windows have to be replaced and what the building looks like afterwards.
Seriously?
Coming home to recover from another hectic day in NYC, to your apartment…in Times Square ?
I know it is cliche for “real” New Yorkers to hate Times Square, but this area has probably the best transit connections of the entire city, ample shopping, restaurants, bars, etc. The big downside is just that it is crowded, mainly with tourists.
Its not the most vibrant community per se, but neither is Downtown Brooklyn with the tens of thousands of apartments added there over the last decade. I would rather live in Times Square than downtown Brooklyn, personally.
Sounds like Airbnb is in the wings.
Ooooh, the City and building management better be up on this.
There should be a website to report on apartments being used for illegal airbnbs which only causes rent to go up.
To the comment that complained it would be studio heavy, this is an area for single people, not families. Ridiculous to say the community wanted more 1 and 2 beds for families. This is for transient renters. Families don’t want Times Sq.
I wonder if the concierge will be dressed as Mickey Mouse.
“Conversions like this one wouldn’t be possible without a tax break, Ms. Hochul said. The developers will get a 90 percent exemption on property taxes for the first 30 years after the building is finished.”—NYT
The building sits on city-owned land and is 80% vacant since its main tenant moved to the West Side (Hudson Yards?).
Moved to another subsidized development?
Why does the city have to give out residential tax breaks? Just convert it to hotels
Possibly the worst example of office-to-residential conversion yet. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to live there long-term, and given the spectacular views of Times Square, why isn’t this being converted into a hotel? Isn’t that the screamingly obvious option? Otherwise it looks like a developer chasing a new tax policy, not a well-thought-through plan.
1250 rental units seems a lot for a tower of that size. So they will by tiny.