Midtown’s 590 Madison Avenue Hits the Market at Roughly $1.1B

Midtown’s 41-story office tower at 590 Madison Avenue, long known as the IBM Building, is on sale at roughly $1.1 billion.

The landmarked office building, owned by the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS Ohio), is one of the first major office trophy assets in New York City going up for sale this year — and is seeking one of the largest price tags since the pandemic, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news.

Eastdil Secured’s Gary Phillips, Will Silverman and Roy March are marketing the sale, Bloomberg reported. A spokesperson for STRS Ohio did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while a spokesperson for Eastdil could not be reached for comment.

The 1 million-square-foot office building between East 56th and East 57th streets became known as the IBM Building when the technology firm took space there for its offices. However, IBM later consolidated its offices at One Madison Avenue, recently expanding by 92,663 square feet in that property.

Despite losing its namesake tenant, current tenants of the office tower overlooking Central Park include luxury retail giant LVMH, private equity firm Reverance Capital Partners, financial services firm E.F. Hutton and private equity firm Crestview Partners.

If the building sells near its asking price, it could end the two-year drought the city has seen in billion-dollar investment sales after Google’s $2.1 billion purchase of 550 Washington Street, SL Green Realty’s $1.8 billion acquisition at 245 Park Avenue and Blackstone’s $1.4 billion purchase of a stake in 1 Manhattan West closed in 2022. Last year’s largest investment sale — Kering’s $963 million deal to buy 717 Fifth Avenue — fell just shy of that mark.

The news comes during a year of big moves for New York City’s largest office buildings, including Citadel founder Ken Griffin’s plans to build a 62-story office tower in Midtown East at 350 Park Avenue along with Vornado Realty Trust and Rudin.

The developers’ 1.8 million-square-foot building is set to be completed by 2032, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

The news also comes as landmarked office buildings like 590 Madison have become more competitive with newer properties in the current office market thanks to owners’ efforts to modernize them, boasting high-profile tenants and high occupancies.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.