One Court Square

One Court Square, also known as the Citicorp Building or the Citigroup Building, is a 50-story, 673-foot (205 m) office tower in Long Island City, Queens, across the East River from Manhattan in New York City, United States. It was completed in 1989 and designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for Citigroup. The building was the tallest in Queens from its completion until the topping out of Skyline Tower in 2019, and for many years was the only skyscraper in Long Island City. It is now home to telecommunications firm Altice USA, whose logo adorns the top of the building, among other tenants.

For the office building on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, see Citigroup Center. For similarly named buildings, see Citicorp Center.

One Court Square
Facade of 1 Court Square
General information
TypeOffice
Completed1989 (1989)
Height
Roof673 ft (205 m)
Technical details
Floor count50
Floor area1,400,000 sq ft (130,000 m2)
Design and construction
Architect(s)Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill

Design

One Court Square was designed by Raúl de Armas of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and is owned by Savanna.[1][2] The building has a green-tinted glass-wrapped facade, and rises a height of 673 feet (205 m) and 50 stories above ground.[2][lower-alpha 1] It has no setbacks until near the top, where it culminates in a pyramidal shape.[1] It has 27 passenger elevators, 4 freight elevators, and 6 escalators. The interior contains 1.4 million square feet (130,000 m2) of rentable space.[4] Its official address is 2501 Jackson Avenue.[2]

The tower had been the tallest building in New York state outside of Manhattan, and the tallest building on Long Island for 29 years.[7] In 2019, the building was surpassed by the Brooklyn Point Tower and the Skyline Tower in height to be demoted to the third tallest building on Long Island, and the second tallest building in Queens.[8][9] Later, in 2021, it was also surpassed in Queens by Queens Plaza Park, which rises to 755 feet (230 m).[10][11]

It is distinguished from the Citigroup Center in Manhattan, which is across the street from Citigroup's former main headquarters at 399 Park Avenue. The buildings are one stop apart on the New York City Subway's IND Queens Boulevard Line (E, ​F, and <F> trains); Citigroup Center is near Lexington Avenue–53rd Street, while One Court Square is right above Court Square–23rd Street, the next station east.

History
Entrance to the building

Citicorp, the largest bank in the United States at the time,[1] announced plans to build an office tower in Long Island City in Queens in 1985.[12][13] It was commissioned by the bank to supplement its nearby headquarters at Citicorp Center in Manhattan, and partly financed by the sale of more than 30 floors at Citicorp Center – a deal The New York Times described as "unusual".[14] Because of its proximity to LaGuardia Airport, the plans for the tower were reviewed by the Federal Aviation Administration.[15] The project was approved by the New York City Planning Commission in 1986,[16] and construction began by 1987. Turner Construction was the lead contractor, and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill was the architectural firm.[17] The construction site was occupied by a parking lot at the time, and was previously the site of a hospital.[18]

The tower, officially known as One Court Square, opened in 1989 as the tallest building in the borough, surpassing the North Shore Towers in Glen Oaks.[19][7] It cost $250 million.[20] The development benefitted from city subsidies, including tax incentives and concessions on utilities, that aimed to persuade Manhattan firms considering a move to New Jersey to stay in the city.[21] The tax breaks amounted to $97 million over 13 years.[20] In exchange, Citicorp funded a $8.5 million improvement to the nearby Court Square–23rd Street station and created a 16,000 square feet (1,500 m2) plaza for public use. It also built a 750-car parking garage nearby.[14] Citicorp initially intended to lease part of the building, but eventually decided to occupy the entire space itself.[14] 4,000 employees were expected to work in the building upon completion.[19] A year later, its tax-assessed value was $114 million, making it the most valuable building in the borough.[22]

At the time, the tower stood alone in a mainly industrial district; The New York Times described it in 2009 as "marooned amid a sea of low-lying warehouses and auto repair shops",[23] and a contemporary review of the building noted that because of its isolation, "we perceive this tower with greater intensity than almost any other skyscraper in the city."[1] The reception in the neighborhood was mixed: many residents feared it would spur overcrowding and rent increases, while businesses were pleased with the prospects for further economic development in the neighborhood.[19][14][20] Five years later, the area was little changed.[24]

Citigroup sold the building in 2005 to Reckson Associates Realty Corporation for $470 million, while maintaining a 15-year lease.[25][21][26] A second building, Two Court Square, was constructed for Citigroup on an adjacent lot in 2007, though plans for a third building were scrapped and a commercial district that the city envisioned would coalesce around the new construction did not materialize, in part due to the Great Recession.[21]

In 2012, Brooklyn real estate investors Joel Schreiber and David Werner purchased One Court Square for $481 million from Stephen L. Green's SL Green and JPMorgan Asset Management.[27] In 2014, it was purchased by Savanna Realty.[28] In 2020, the Citi logo was removed from the building and replaced with a logo of telecommunications company Altice USA, whose headquarters had been in the building since 2017. Citi's lease expired in the same year.[29]

In 2021, Consolidated Edison performed a $5 million retrofit of the building's HVAC systems for greater energy efficiency, described as the largest such retrofit of an office building in the company's history.[30]

Tenants

WNYZ-LD (also known as Voice of NY Radio Korea) broadcasts from the top of the building, as do various low power television stations.

Since 2017, the building has housed the headquarters of Altice on its top floors.[31] In 2018 the building was selected to provide up to 25 floors to Amazon[32] as part of one of its three Amazon HQ2 locations. However, the Amazon HQ2 location in New York City was later canceled.[33] As of 2023, Centene leased 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2), and the New York City School Construction Authority was to occupy 350,000 square feet (33,000 m2) across 11 floors starting in 2024.[6]

For 30 years, the Queens Library operated a branch on the ground floor of the building, paying a nominal rent of $1 a year. It left the building when its original lease expired.[28]

See also

References
  1. Goldberger, Paul (October 23, 1988). "Alone In Queens, An Unlikely Tower Scrapes The Sky". The New York Times. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
  2. "One Court Square". The Skyscraper Center. CTBUH. Archived from the original on April 24, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  3. White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 760. ISBN 978-0-19-538386-7.
  4. Holusha, John (February 8, 2006). "A Long Island City Awakening". The New York Times. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
  5. Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (2010). The Encyclopedia of New York City (2nd ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 254. ISBN 978-0-300-11465-2.
  6. Murray, Christian (January 6, 2023). "Northwell Health to Take Space at One Court Square in LIC, Open Urgent Care Facility". LIC Post. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
  7. Paybarah, Azi; Oats, David (2003). "Citicorp Leads Queens To The Skies". Queens Tribune. Archived from the original on February 12, 2007. Retrieved February 13, 2007.
  8. Ricciulli, Valeria (October 11, 2019). "Tallest skyscraper in Queens tops out at 778 feet". Curbed NY. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
  9. Alexa, Alexandra (April 16, 2019). "Extell's 720-foot Brooklyn Point tops out, becomes tallest tower in borough". 6sqft. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  10. Young, Michael (December 9, 2018). "Long Island City's Future Tallest Skyscraper, Skyline Tower, Now Rising Above Street Level". New York YIMBY.
  11. Young, Michael (December 10, 2018). "Exclusive New Rendering Revealed for Durst's Queens Plaza Park in Long Island City". New York YIMBY.
  12. Kennedy, Shawn G. (November 26, 1989). "Commercial Property: Long Island City; Ambitious Projects Delayed as Conversions Proceed". The New York Times. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  13. "Big Citicorp Plan". The New York Times. July 28, 1985. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  14. Depalma, Anthony (August 7, 1988). "A Giant to Dominate Low-Rise Queens". The New York Times. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  15. Dunlap, David W. (December 18, 1986). "Long Island City Looking to the Sky". The New York Times. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  16. Finder, Alan (July 10, 1986). "Two Major Tower Projects Advance". The New York Times. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  17. Oser, Alan S. (May 17, 1987). "British Airways Lands in Jackson Heights". The New York Times. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  18. Gottlieb, Martin (December 16, 1985). "Citicorp To Decentralize, Plans Queens Complex". The New York Times. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  19. Chira, Susan (June 23, 1989). "2 Visions of the Future Compete in Long Island City". The New York Times. p. B2. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
  20. Kurtz, Howard (January 25, 1989). "American Journal". The Washington Post. Long Island City. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
  21. Bagli, Charles V. (February 23, 2015). "New Housing to Benefit as Citigroup Sells Queens Site". The New York Times. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
  22. Buder, Leonard (January 17, 1990). "New York City Real Estate's Value Rising by 10.8%". The New York Times. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
  23. Tarquinio, J. Alex (July 28, 2009). "Cleaning the Grit Off Long Island City". The New York Times. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
  24. Lambert, Bruce (February 6, 1994). "Citicorp's Tower: Still a Majestic Misfit". The New York Times. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  25. "Metro Briefing; New York: Queens: Office Tower Sold". The New York Times. May 5, 2005. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
  26. Marshall, Randi F. (May 5, 2005). "Reckson buys Citi tower". Newsday. p. A52.
  27. Putzier, Konrad (December 1, 2017). "The story of WeWork's mysterious first investor". The Real Deal.
  28. Murray, Christian (November 30, 2020). "Queens Public Library Offered Space in 5Pointz Development for Court Square Branch". LIC Post. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
  29. Bolger, John (July 9, 2020). "Citi Logos Removed from One Court Square, a Sign of the Times". LIC Post. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
  30. Kaye, Jacob (July 23, 2021). "One Court Square gets green makeover". Queens Daily Eagle. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
  31. "Telecom giant Altice to relocate Long Island HQ to One Court Square: report". The Real Deal New York. June 15, 2017. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
  32. Goodman, J. David (November 13, 2018). "Amazon Is Getting at Least $1.7 Billion to Come to Queens. Now Comes the Fight Over Whether It's Worth It". The New York Times.
  33. Morris, Keiko (November 9, 2018). "Landlord, Facing Loss of a Big Tenant, Pins Hopes on Amazon HQ2". The Wall Street Journal. New York City. Retrieved November 9, 2018.

Notes
  1. Some sources state 48 floors,[3][4][5] or 53.[6]

40°44′49.5″N 73°56′38″W

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