Tishman Speyer Signs 150-Year Ground Lease to Reposition Chrysler Building

Tishman Speyer is taking over stewardship of the landmarked Chrysler Building with plans to renovate it after signing a lengthy ground lease.

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, the private college which owns the land underneath the tower, finalized a deal with the commercial real estate giant that is due to last 150 years. The New York Times confirmed the ground lease Tuesday night. 

The terms of the ground lease such as the monthly payments were not disclosed, but Tishman Speyer agreed to invest $235 million in upgrades in addition to ground lease payments.

Cooper Union has owned the land since 1901, and evicted Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs’s RFR Holding in November 2024 after a default on $21 million in ground-rent payments.

“We are pursuing an ambitious plan for the Chrysler Building at a historically strong moment for the Manhattan office market,” Tishman Speyer CEO Rob Speyer said in a statement. “Just as we have done through new developments like The Spiral and our continuous reinvention of Rockefeller Center, we will create an environment that will make our customers proud and excited to work here every day.” 

Cooper Union was represented by Steve Klein, Gibson Dunn and David Heller of Savills.

“The vacancy rate is pretty significant,” Heller told Commercial Observer. “I think part of it was that there was a market dynamic in 2020, 2021, and then through the negotiations with the previous leaseholder for a new long-term, restructured ground lease. Until that was resolved, there wasn’t necessarily the motivation or incentive to continue to invest and to proactively lease up the building while those conversations were happening.”

Between RFR’s eviction and closing the deal with Tishman Speyer, Cooper Union was making the best of the opportunity to find a leaseholder who would manage the building in a way that was in the best financial interest of the school.

The repositioning plans include turning 75 percent of the building’s currently and soon-to-be vacant space into pre-built office suites in order to streamline the flow of new leases in the 77-story tower, with Tishman Speyer echoing the approach it took with 6 Grand Central.

Reports were circulating earlier in 2026 that Tishman Speyer was in talks to acquire the building, but Speyer was tight-lipped about the deal.

The new ground lease grants Cooper Union, a private college, the ability to restore full-tuition scholarships to all of its undergraduate students in line with its mission.

“For more than a century, the Chrysler Building has helped sustain Peter Cooper’s vision of opening access to education by removing financial barriers,” Steven McLaughlin, president of Cooper Union, said in a statement. “We have a responsibility to be caretakers of that promise, to build upon it, and to leave Cooper stronger for those who come after us. This agreement is part of an integrated financial plan that gives us the framework to confidently pursue that goal.”

Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board is also an investor in the repositioning effort, backing Tishman Speyer.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.