Hermès takes 3 floors at 550 Madison for its U.S. HQ
New York Business Journal
Liz Young, 2.28.22
Hermès has signed a lease to take three floors of office space at 550 Madison Ave., a landmarked Midtown tower that’s currently being redeveloped.
The French luxury design house is the second tenant to sign on at the building, after property and casualty insurance firm Chubb (NYSE: CB) signed a lease for 10 floors and 240,000 square feet in November.
With the deal, 13 floors at the 41-story building have been snatched up.
Hermès will occupy nearly 72,000 square feet of office space across the full 23rd, 24th and 25th floors. Hermès will use the location as its U.S. headquarters.
The Olayan Group and RXR have been working on the redevelopment of 550 Madison Ave., which was originally built in 1984 as the headquarters for AT&T.
The developers in September unveiled the first part of the project: a new lobby designed by Gensler, featuring a large-scale art commission by Alicja Kwade called “Solid Sky.” That lobby now offers a view straight through from the entrance back to a new public garden designed by Snøhetta.
Olayan’s plan for the property is to reimagine it as a multi-tenant office space, keeping its Chippendale top while increasing its capacity and nearly doubling the public open space at the site.
Mary Ann Tighe, CEO of CBRE’s New York tri-state region — the exclusive leasing agent for the building — at the time told the New York Business Journal she was confident in the building’s leasing potential.
“We’re going to be finished leasing this building by the middle of next year,” Tighe said.
550 Madison Ave. is the city’s youngest landmark, designated in 2018, after being completed in 1984 by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee.
Gensler has worked to pay homage to Johnson’s original postmodernist design while bringing it into the 21st century. AECOM Tishman is the construction manager on the project.
The 800,000-square-foot building is expected to open this year. This latest iteration will be the first time it’s housed more than one tenant at a time. It’s previously only been occupied by AT&T and then Sony. The Olayan Group, a Liechtenstein-based developer, acquired 550 Madison in 2016.
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