460 Park Avenue Redevelopment

When 460 Park Avenue went up in 1954, its prefabricated aluminum panels were the new thing in curtain wall. Seventy-two years later they’re coming off, and SOM is designing what replaces them.

The Korea International Trade Association, through its Hahn Kook Center affiliate, has started a $200 million redevelopment of the 22-story tower at the northwest corner of Park and East 57th. KITA has owned the building since 1974. Work began around July 2026 with delivery targeted for the second quarter of 2028.

Project Scope

The existing building is 282,801 square feet on a 13,557-square-foot lot. The redevelopment delivers roughly 350,000 square feet of office space including a 9,307-square-foot expansion, and converts the building to an all-electric system with dedicated outdoor air handling. The target set is LEED Gold, WELL Certification and WiredScore Platinum.

Recladding an occupied-height tower on Park Avenue is a logistics problem before it’s a design problem. Sidewalk sheds, crane and hoist placement, and material staging all have to work within a Midtown block with no lay-down area, and the aluminum removal generates a demolition stream that has to leave the site through the same constrained access the new panels come in on. JLL is handling leasing.

Why It Matters

Manhattan’s older office stock has split into buildings worth repositioning and buildings worth converting to apartments. 460 Park is a bet on the first category, and the reasoning is location: Park and 57th still commands rents that justify $200 million of capital on a mid-century frame.

The all-electric conversion is the part with broader reach. New York’s Local Law 97 emissions caps tighten in 2030, and gas-fired heating in a Class B tower is a compliance liability with a known date attached. Owners doing major capital work now are electrifying because doing it twice costs more than doing it once. The project is drawing city support through NYCEDC’s M-CORE program, which exists to make exactly this math work on aging Midtown towers.

Project Team & Details