While the renderings and plans for the 1 Vanderbilt skyscraper have been floating around for a little over a year now, a billion-dollar lawsuit over whether or not the development infringes on the air rights over Grand Central Terminal threatened to kill the development. However, the NY Times reports the rich folks battling over the air rights have called a truce, paving the way for the 63-story office tower to go up.
The lawsuit, brought by Midtown TDR Ventures against 1 Vanderbilt developer SL Green Realty, hinged on whether the City Council rezoning of an area between East 42nd and East 47th Streets that allowed SL Green to build their tower was an illegal giveaway of Grand Central Terminal's air rights. We'll never know if it was or not, because the two settled out of court, with a source telling the Times that the amount of the settlement was "de minimis" (rich person speak for "too trivial to even mention," but in this case still probably more money than you'll ever see).
So with this kaiju battle finished and one of the monsters peacefully returning to the sea with a big bag of money, there's no more hurdles in front of the 63-story, 1,401-foot skyscraper and promised $220 million worth of transit improvements in and around Grand Central. Other than, of course, your normal construction hurdles that delay things around here. Both the skyscraper, which will have TD Bank as a flagship tenant, and the promised transit upgrades, are scheduled to change Midtown forever in 2021.
