Sutton 58 (also known as 3 Sutton Place) is a residential skyscraper in the Sutton Place neighborhood of Midtown East, Manhattan in New York City.[1]
Architecture
The building was designed by Thomas Juul-Hansen and is 847 feet (258 m) tall.[2][3] It is variously cited as containing 62 stories[2][4] or 65 stories.[3] The site contains 260,000 square feet (24,000 m2) of buildable space.[5]
The tower's stone-and-glass facade contains five bays of windows on its northern and southern elevations and three bays on the western and eastern elevations.[6] The tower is slightly cantilevered over a neighboring building to the east.[4][7] The cantilever extends about 10 feet (3.0 m) over the neighboring structure at 434 East 58th Street.[4] The superstructure is made of reinforced concrete.[3][7] At the top of the building is a two-level, five-bedroom penthouse.[8]
History
Bauhouse plans
In January 2015, The Bauhouse Group secured three adjacent low-rise buildings on the east side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City.[9][10] In March the firm acquired a fourth adjacent location, along with 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of air rights, intending to construct a luxury residential skyscraper.[11][12][13] That August, Bauhouse acquired another 109,000 square feet (10,100 m2) of air rights for $37.9 million.[14] The tower would have been designed by Foster and Partners and would have been about 1,000 feet (300 m) tall.[5] Bauhouse obtained a $63 million loan from Gamma Real Estate in early 2015 and received another $147 million loan from Gamma that June. JLL brokered the loans.[15][16]
The plans had generated opposition by mid-2015,[17] and opponents raised money to fight the plans.[18] As a direct response to the plans for 3 Sutton Place, community members and politicians sought to rezone the neighborhood, creating a height limit of 260 feet (79 m) for the area bounded by First Avenue to the west, 52nd Street to the south, and 59th Street to the east.[19][20] At the time, the neighborhood had no height restrictions for new buildings, and developers needed only to assemble the required air rights.[19] Residents of the neighboring 434 East 58th Street, whose air rights Bauhouse had purchased during late 2014 for $11 million, said they had been told the structure would be between 13 and 30 stories tall, only to then be shown the plans for a 90-story tower. According to a Bauhouse spokesperson, "As the complex assemblage continued into 2015, the size of the building increased."[21][22] In the midst of opposition, Bauhouse executive Joseph Beninati sought a partner for the project, particularly one who could help underwrite the $650 million proposed cost.[23][24] By December 2015, demolition permits had been filed for the site.[25][26][27] A neighboring property owner, whose house abutted one of the buildings that was going to be demolished, claimed that the demolition would damage his house.[28]
In January 2016, Bauhouse defaulted on the $147 million loan from Gamma.[29] Early the next month, Gamma had started foreclosure proceedings on the site,[30] and the Carlton Group sought an $80 million mezzanine loan for the project.[31] Gamma scheduled a foreclosure auction for the site for February 29.[32][33] Bauhouse asked a judge to enjoin Gamma from foreclosing on the site, but the request was denied on February 23.[34][35] The following day, JLL sued Bauhouse and Beninati for failing to pay a broker's commission for the two loans the company had secured from Gamma.[15][16] After failing to secure additional funding, Bauhouse filed for bankruptcy on the 3 Sutton Place site two days before the auction was set to occur, thus canceling the planned auction.[36][37] Continuing litigation cast the future of the project into doubt.[38] A bankruptcy court hearing took place in April 2016.[39]
Gamma Real Estate takeover
An auction for the development site was approved in September 2016,[40][41] and a December auction date was scheduled two months later.[42][43][44] Gamma Real Estate acquired the site at auction,[45][46] and it announced revised plans for the site.[47] The plans called for a 67-story structure with 125 apartments across about 262,000 square feet (24,300 m2).[48] Concurrently, efforts to rezone the area proceeded.[49][50] In April 2017, the initial rezoning proposal was released and was initially met critically.[51][52] That same month Gamma Real Estate closed on the property.[53][54] As part of the rezoning, buildings within the rezoned area were required to have 45 to 50 percent of their bulk below a height of 150 feet (46 m).[55][5] Therefore, either the structure would have to be limited to 260 feet (79 m), or the proposed 800-foot (240 m) tower would need to have extremely narrow upper stories, which Gamma opposed.[5]
The rezoning was approved in November, and after an initial decision to grant an exemption was reversed, construction work was halted by the end of the year.[56][57][58] At the time, the foundation was nearly completed.[55][59] Work resumed in June 2018 following approval from the Board of Standards and Appeals, although the project's opponents continued their efforts to halt construction.[60][61][62][63] Construction rose above street level in June 2019 and facade installation began that December.[64][65] In August 2020, the skyscraper topped-out and facade installation passed the halfway point.[66][2] The last portions of cladding were installed in June 2021, and by August crown installation was progressing.[67][68] The building was completed in 2022.[1]
References
^ ab"Sutton 58". The Skyscraper Center. CTBUH. Archived from the original on October 10, 2021. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
