NYC’s Landmark Lever House to Get $100M Revamp

By:  Benyamin Davidsons

The iconic Lever House, at 390 Park Avenue, is getting a $100 million redevelopment.

As reported by the NY Post, the landmark 21-floor office building in Midtown Manhattan, located between East 53rd and East 54th streets, is gearing up for a $100 million revamp project.  The green glass skyscraper is slated to reopen early next year, with an indoor and outdoor, tenants-only hospitality suite on the third floor.  Lever House joint-venture leaseholders, WatermanClark and Brookfield Properties, will launch Lever Club, in response to post-pandemic market demand for wellness and collaborative-work facilities.

“Our intention is to support employers’ desire to respond to their employees in the post-pandemic world. Our redevelopment will create an environment where people want to be, with a focus on health, wellness and flexibility,” said Waterman Clark co-founder and managing partner Ric Clark.  “The one thing we hear from young executives is that they don’t want to be chained to their desks.”

Built in the early 1950’s, the 307-foot skyscraper contains only about 260,000 square feet of office space, which makes it a rare architectural anomaly.  Unilever, the original owner, moved most of its offices out of the building in 1997, leaving it occupied by multiple tenants.  The building’s third floor had once been utilized by Lever as a hospitality center, but has since been used as office space.

The new Lever Club, on the third floor, aims to bring new life and new tenants to the historic building, boasting 15,000 square feet of outdoor space in two landscaped terraces. As per the Post, there will also be a 15,000 square foot indoor complex added, slated to include a private restaurant, conference rooms and health facilities such as training rooms and showers.   The tower’s revamp will also include a top-to-bottom interior refurbishment and an advanced DOAS filtration system which will provide 50 percent more fresh air than in other DOAS-equipped buildings.  Also, the ground-level plaza beneath the tower is being redesigned with a new ceiling and more lighting.

WatermanClark and Brookfield became the new leaseholders in 2020, paying $240 million for the long-term lease, as per property records.  The last time the building got a makeover was a modest modernization in 2000 by previous owner, Aby Rosen of RFR Realty.

“There were only four or five tenants when we took over in 2020. We worked with them to facilitate their leaving. An empty building isn’t scary for us. It gives us the opportunity to do what we’re doing, which we couldn’t’ do in a building full of tenants,” Clark said.

A CBRE team has been tapped to market the spaces.