Work is underway on the office-to-residential conversion of 5 Times Square, a 38-story skyscraper in Midtown, Manhattan. Designed by Gensler and developed by RXR Realty, Apollo Global Management, and SL Green, the project will transform the 575-foot-tall structure’s 917,745 square feet of vacant office space into 1,250 rental units. Of this total, 313 will be permanently affordable for residents earning up to 80 percent of area median income (AMI). The property is located along Seventh Avenue between West 41st and 42nd Streets.
The adaptive reuse is part of the “Manhattan Plan” to create 100,000 new homes in the borough over the next decade.
Crews have begun assembling a construction hoist on the southern elevation to aid in the interior overhaul. A strip of the glass curtain wall has been removed where subsequent levels of the elevator will attach to the superstructure. Workers are also in the process of removing additional glass panels from a series of hanging platforms on all four sides. The building’s 37,311 square feet of retail space will remain open during the renovation.
5 Times Square. Photo by Michael Young.
5 Times Square. Photo by Michael Young.
5 Times Square. Photo by Michael Young.
5 Times Square. Photo by Michael Young.
5 Times Square. Photo by Michael Young.
5 Times Square. Photo by Michael Young.
5 Times Square. Photo by Michael Young.
5 Times Square. Photo by Michael Young.
5 Times Square. Photo by Michael Young.
5 Times Square. Photo by Michael Young.
5 Times Square. Photo by Michael Young.
5 Times Square. Photo by Michael Young.
The housing inventory will be divided into 1,050 studios and 200 one-bedroom units. Amenities will include a fitness center and a dining and lounge area.
Rendering of 5 Times Square, via 5timessquare.com
Photograph of 5 Times Square, via 5timessquare.com
Photograph of 5 Times Square, via 5timessquare.com
Originally completed in 2002, 5 Times Square formerly served as the headquarters of Ernst & Young until the company moved its offices to One Manhattan West in 2022. The following year, Roku signed a lease for 240,000 square feet on the top eight floors of the building. The streaming company will maintain its offices at the property throughout construction.
The office-to-residential conversion was made possible by the elimination of the 12 FAR residential cap, as well as the implementation of the 467-m tax incentive that encourages adaptive reuse. The project is expected to generate roughly 1,400 construction jobs and 830 permanent positions.
The development team is carrying out the conversion with a $1.3 billion loan from Morgan Stanley, Apollo, and Corebridge.
The building sits directly over two subway entrances to the Times Square–42nd Street station, served by the 1, 2, 3, 7, N, Q, R W, and Shuttle to Grand Central Terminal.
The first phase of the office-to-residential conversion process for 5 Times Square is scheduled for completion in 2027.
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I’m still baffled that anyone thinks this site is best used for residential (no matter how much the city needs more apartments). If updating it for more Class A office space (also still needed) wasn’t in the cards (and why?), surely this is an ideal site for a hotel? Because who other than tourists would want to put their heads down at night this close to Times Square? Am I missing something?
The question isnt will people want to live there, but rather for what price. If you try to charge me UWS prices for a Times Square apartment I am not going to lease. Give me a significant rent savings and we’ll talk.
That will never happen-they will most likely be used as perdi-teis for the out of towners
That will never happen-they will most likely be used as perdi-teis for the out of towners
I think Time Square may have had its time for Class A Office space. Say the first 25 years of the new Millennium and now that’s it
I agree. I opened thus office for Ernst & Young in 2002. Now it’s a conversion. That’s the extent of its commercial life – just under 25 years.
But let’s not forget when this building opened it was a wave of class A office space construction around the square and it was definitely the NEW Times Square. And now that life is over and it’s on its way to something else.
That’s New York
The floorplate is likely far too deep to make a hotel programming viable. The 1,000 “studios” they are advertising will almost certainly have deep dens and be marketed more like 1 bedrooms, similar to fidi conversions
I have to agree with the previous poster. I worked on 5 Times Square and was part of the project team that moved my firm into the building in 2002 which we occupied 100%. While Times Square may not have seemed like the perfect place for new offices in 2002 it actually was. Centrally located, this building had access to all components of the subway including virtually all midtown IRT, BMT, and IND lines. Great for business in the end. Loved working there.
AND……
I loved LEAVING there at the end of the day.
Being class A and only 20 years old I would have guessed it would have retained its current use. Note also that all of the other major developments in this area Times Square (1-5) are all still commercial.
I would be curious as to what makes the project viable. Is the city subsidizing (e.g. through tax credits, etc) this type of conversion?
I guess I better reading former mayor Adam’s report in more detail: )
Well written, and maybe similarly to what you said, that “Times Square may not have seemed like the perfect place for offices in 2002..” it might not now seem like the perfect place for apartments in 2026, but it might actually turn out to be..
👍 Thank you…and I agree
This location is better for office or hotel. The building is only twenty years old. Rather ghan all these studios, just renovate into a hotel.
Aren’t New York City apartments required to have operable windows? How much of the facade will be replaced to accommodate that?
Might as well rename New York City FREE CITY. I work my butt off to be able to afford to live in New York City. People in affordable housing just want to take take live in the best parts of New York City and not work, they are lazy bums.
You ask why are the developers/landdlords giving in? Because they’re going to get guaranteed rent from the state every month on time! Why would they want to have to depend upon making New York City great again and take the chance that the tourists will come to this radical dangerous, criminal city They know its is a risk that tourists will pay hundreds of dollars per night to stay next to people living in a beautiful affordable housing previous hotel that will probably pee, spit, beg when they walk out in the morning from their hotel. I’ve lived in New York City since I Came out of college and all I’ve seen is give to the poor gift to the people that cry gift to the people that are lazy have excuses for this gendeR, their age, complain about our beautiful safe country. What about the people in the United States of America? What about the people who are paying thousands of dollars per square foot to invest in property that they will have a return on one day, never happening say goodbye to New York City. Fashion is dead, theaters dead, beautification is dead. The only thing that’s alive is crime, unsafe conditions we live in, cannot walk in the street without being worried that someone’s going to rip your necklace off your neck or stab you with a pen. Get real Democrats don’t think that this can’t happen to you & your families. These people who are squatting in New York City do not care who they hurt as long as they get something for free. SHAME ON THE THE DEVELOPERS THEY ARE DISRESPECTFUL, DISGRACEFUL HUMAN BEINGS WHO WOULD NEVER LIVE IN A AFFORDABLE HOUSING BUILDING. WHEN WILL PARK & 5TH AVENUE HAVE AFFORDABLE HOUSING EVERYONE HAS THEY RIGHT TO HAVE CENTRAL PARK VIEWS.
Best suggestion MOVE. If you are a hard-working person, don’t be a sucker and stay in NYC. All you are doing is contributing your hard earned money to taxes to build affordable housing. You are supporting & paying their rent, food, lounges, gyms, recreation centers while we pay up the nose, work hard to be called upper class rich people. Guess what, affordable housing people do not work 2 or 3 jobs to have respect form themselves. They are demanding big mouth people who watch TV and smoke all day long. If they want a better quality of life, let them move outside of New York City, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, upstate New York they can live a great affordable life with not as many demands and be happy but no, they want the best and they do NOT deserve it.
Wow. This is the most egregious, cantankerous, and unstably unhinged level of word salad I’ve seen on YIMBY; we’re only 4 days in to 2026.
Happy New Year you fucking MAGA asshole and hope your president finally dies this year.
👍
Bet you never set foot in New York City and live a sweet incel life in a flyover state in some dingy basement, NOT A SUCKER.
Boy, NOT A SUKER Sure sounds exactly that. Unhinged too, residing undoubtedly in a dump that is overpriced and poorly decorated.
Looks like somebody just lost the last affordable housing lottery. Why don’t you pull yourself up by the bootstraps, big guy? Show us commies that capitalism works.
You’re one to talk NOT A SUCKER. You sound like someone who lives in a red Welfare state barely scraping by with your 2-3 minimum wage jobs living paycheck to paycheck, and turning a blind eye to your state of financial distress just to try and appeal to a bunch of online strangers who know having a username like yours in all caps means the complete opposite of what you say you aren’t.
All while continuing to believe that 47 is making America’s economy great. Oh wait, why do you think the US October jobs report wasn’t immediately released until last month after the government finally opened up amidst a six-figure job loss? Why is the national unemployment rate at its highest since the start of covid? Why is the jobs market the worst it’s ever been since 08-09? Why are white Americans the largest racial group for SNAP benefits, while MAGAts like you are trying to lie and say Latinos are the bigger recipients? Why are a lot of farms in severe distress and asking for a $12 billion bailout? I thought handouts are only for suckers and lazy bums, and certainly not immigrant farmers who work their asses off (more than you would in your lifetime) in the field to put food on your table, RIGHT???
Keep rambling from the discomfort of your shitty trailer home with your lead contaminated water (thank your boy RFK Jr. for deregulating EPA guidelines to our country’s food and water supply) and see how embarrassingly uneducated you sound.
Murders 1990 = 2262
Murders 2024 = 382
That is a 83% drop
What are you talking about?
Maybe you should check your sources. I think 2025 is around 302.
Most nonsensical rant by some MAGA sycophant, but still not as nonsensical as anything the orange scumbag ever tweeted about with his tiny bruised hands since ‘Covfefe.’
You sounds like someone that needs to be on a watch list.
Like an FBI watchlist because NOT A SUCKER sounds some deranged radical that would plot a mass shooting and use his white privilege to get an unfair & light jail sentence after killing people and claiming he’s just mentally unsound.
Not A Sucker, if I saw you out on the street attacking someone in the name of Trump, I would love to claw your eyes out with my fingers, put my knee down against your neck, and snap your jawbone apart from your skull like snapping a wishbone in half. America and the world could use one less white supremacist like you destroying our country.
Please go back on your medication. You’re a danger to yourself and others. Consider upping your dose.
You’re making it sound like affordable housing is a free handout. Guess what, NOT A SUCKER, it’s not!!
Not a sucker, more like not a C.U.Next.Tuesday.
Username NOT A SUCKER = a MAGA trolling shithead
Should have change your name to “I NEVER LIVE IN NEW YORK & I HATE POOR PEOPLE”
NOT A SUCKER, do you feel happier and prouder about America and our government since what happened to Renee Good in Minneapolis? Are you happy knowing you’ve shown the world the kind of piece of $hit MAGA you are??? I hope you lose the privelige to vote in the Midterms and in 2028, even if it means you get unalived.
Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
NOT A SUCKER, are you still in support of the president after ICE just shot another person in Minneapolis today? You and your incel MAGA dipshit cult members can go fuck yourselves and burn in hell for tearing out country apart.
Feels like this is catering to the straight-out-of-college business professionals who just need a bed to run back to from Morgan Stanley for the 4 hours not at work. Agreed it doesn’t make much sense beyond that.
Agreed. The fact they’re cramming 1200 studios into this tower signals what this is. I have to say, for some young professionals, this is exactly what they need. If it can be offered at a reasonable price, there will be takers, and this is net good for the rental market.
If this building can be converted to residential, with some office floors still on top, then most any building can be. Yes, it’s a location I would never want to live at, and I do wonder how the operable windows will look. With all those studios, will “tenants” rent them out for Airbnb tourists? That needs to be strictly prohibited.
Otherwise, this is really an amazing project.
I too am surprised that a building barely over two decades old cannot make it as offices and has to be converted to apartments. Given that it is about 107 feet front to back, there will be difficult in having floor plans with rooms having near access to windows. I presume kitchens and bathrooms will be placed toward the inside as they do not require windows.
I’m not sure who exactly thinks living in Times Square would be remotely pleasant, but who am I to argue with the market? If the apartments get tenants, I suppose that is a win for us YIMBYs.
By actually having people LIVE in this part of town, (like how the financial district became better through diversification, mixed use, etc), when people actually live in this times square neighborhood it might make the neighborhood dynamic BETTER!🙂 Oh and that “not a sucker” diatribe of non-sense was the most uninformed & vitriolic waste of comment space I’ve ever seen. Lord have mercy!, how does that nincompoop think all the “menial” labor in nyc gets done w/o some “semi-affordable” housing?, trust & believe the housing is FAR FROM FREE!!!, they are not “free loaders”, but help add to the overall tapestry of the city by maybe working an important & necessary job in the city, but simply cannot afford the average rents, etc
What a joke. It’s a bailout for a failed office building. One of many to come. No one wants to raise their kids in Times Square. Is this a joke? So now developers will be given great tax breaks for average construction interiors.
So you’re saying every office-to residential conversion is a joke, and a failed office building to you?
LOL if you think every housing conversion is a joke, you just have to leave NY.
To not a sucker…have a happy new year
Never thought I’d say this, but after reading through this entire thread I’m really missing David from Heaven’s simplistic posts! 😄