New York’s Aging Buildings
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The Flatiron Building, born in 1902.
If the Flatiron Building were a person, it would be dead by now (and so probably would its children). The Chrysler and the Empire State buildings would be getting there.
The nation's No. 1 business hub, in fact, groans under the weight of a particularly geriatric commercial building stock, by national and even regional measures, a ceaseless reality that presents challenges-and the odd opportunity-for Manhattan landlords, brokers and service firms, not to mention for the city at large in its seemingly eternal struggle to keep firms from skipping to Jersey or (egad!) Connecticut.
The average larger midtown commercial building is 57 years old, nine years older than the president of the United States; the average midtown south one is a cheek-pinching 92; and downtown, it's 63, according to data from CB Richard Ellis Research, based on buildings measuring over 75,000 square feet in midtown south and downtown, and over 150,000 square feet in midtown.