First Look at Columbia Property’s Midtown South Revamp

Rendering of 149 Madison Avenue. Image courtesy of Gensler

The developer behind a major repositioning in Midtown South has unveiled the first images of the planned project.

Columbia Property Trust’s redevelopment of 149 Madison Avenue has been in the works since 2018 and is slated to be completed by the end of the year, according to the company. The 12-story boutique office building is undergoing an extensive repositioning that includes upgraded building systems that focus on health and wellness for tenants, new retail storefront facades and windows, modernized lobbies and new tenant amenities.

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Newmark is heading up leasing for both the office and retail portions of the building while Gensler is leading the architecture and design of the project. New amenities will include a multi-purpose lounge area for tenants that connects to a café, a shared board room on the ground floor, a fitness center and wellness space and bike storage.

Columbia first purchased 149 Madison in 2017 from Abramson Brothers for $87.7 million. Originally built in 1916, the office property is located at the corner of Madison Avenue and East 32nd Street. In the fall of 2018, WeWork struck a deal with Columbia to lease the entire 114,000-square-foot office portion of 149 Madison and collaborate with the firm on the renovation. That deal, however, was terminated last year.

Rendering of 149 Madison Avenue. Image courtesy of Gensler

Nelson Mills, CEO of Columbia Property Trust, said that the company eyed the purchase as an opportunity to bring a high-end, creative office building to the market.

The same year Columbia began the transformation of 149 Madison, the firm teamed up with Normandy Real Estate Partners in a joint venture development of a $300 million boutique office building in the same neighborhood. That property, 799 Broadway, is a 12-story office building that will have 182,000 square feet of boutique office space once completed.

According to CommercialEdge data, as of May, the share of under-construction office properties in Manhattan dipped for the first time month-over-month since the beginning of the year.