#Old McGraw-Hill building free to start new chapter

Finally free from a pesky preservationists’ lawsuit, the landmarked former McGraw-Hill Building at 330 W. 42nd St. is stepping into a new life as a modern office tower attuned to 21st century needs.

A full-scale marketing campaign begins this week for the vacant 700,000-square-foot-tower that was once home to publisher McGraw-Hill and to Marvel Comics and more recently to United Healthcare Workers union Local 1199. A Newmark Knight Frank team led by Scott Klau and Brian Waterman will handle leasing.

Gerard Nocera, managing partner of asset manager Resolution Real Estate Partners who was previously a high executive at SL Green and HSP Real Estate Group, said the timing of the lease-campaign launch following the lawsuit’s dismissal was coincidental.

Resolution took on the job of repositioning McGraw-Hill on behalf of the owners 18 months ago.

A judge last week threw out a nuisance case filed by activists who wanted to block owners Deco Tower Associates from replacing the property’s antiquated lobby. The case was groundless, because most of the lobby wasn’t original to the 1931 masterpiece designed by architect Raymond Hood, but rather was installed in the 1980s.

Moreover, only the tower’s aquamarine-brick exterior enjoyed Landmarks Preservation Commission protection — not the interior. Even so, the suit by local activists was endorsed by Council Speaker Corey Johnson, State Sen. Brad Hoylman and Community Board 4.

Deco Tower Associates, a reclusive local partnership, spent $120 million on capital improvements that include the new, three-level lobby; tenant amenities including a wellness center; and all-new systems, most notably a a virus-repellent fresh-air system known as BRF-DOAS system that’s controlled entirely by tenants.

Nine terraces that previously served only to mark facade setbacks have been converted to alfresco use by office tenants.

“The owners spent tens of millions of dollars on restoring the property even before the capital improvements,” Nocera said.

Plans to revitalize the atmospheric but antiquated tower were in flux for several years before the union moved out in 2019. A proposal to convert upper floors to condo apartments was dropped several years ago despite lingering reports to the contrary.

An ill-considered notion to replace the Deco-style, red McGraw-Hill sign at the top with the 330 W. 42nd address was wisely dropped. But the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved several minor changes, including removal of obsolete exterior air-conditioning units and heating units and installation of a ground-level sign with the address above the entrance, similar in design to one that McGraw-Hill once had.
Architects MdeAS is overseeing the alterations.  

Now, the tower is poised to attract the kinds of creative and media companies who have flocked to the far West Side.

“We view it as an extension of the Hudson Yards district,” Nocera said of the location between Eighth and Ninth avenues.

The new, atrium-style lobby will link a wellness center and lounges on the lower level and second floor. It will be  a “bright new space with meeting and greeting areas, grab-and-go [snack facilities] to replace its drab, low-ceiling predecessor that was like a bowling alley,” Nocera said.

But the structure’s industrial-era  bones remain, including exposed steel beams, ceiling heights up to 15 feet and floor plates between 20,000 and 30,000 square feet.

Nocera said asking rents will range from the $80 to $90s per square foot. The owners hope to draw an anchor tenant for 250,000 to 350,000 square feet, and others to take one or two full floors.

“But in today’s market, the plan is to be as flexible as possible,” Nocera said.