Marc Holliday and Andrew Mathias

After nearly two decades of planning, SL Green finally opened it’s $3 billion, 77-story One Vanderbilt tower in Midtown East in September, bringing some much-needed development to the neighborhood.

“It really defined a new category of building for the city,” Marc Holliday said. “The tenant response has been extraordinary.”

The tower stood at 81 percent leased as of May 2021, and SL Green has been able to sign 11 leases in the property during the pandemic, including MSD Partners’ 35,567-square-foot deal this month. SL Green is also in talks for several more deals that would bring the tower to 90 percent full.

“We have a very active leasing program now, where people are touring the building week in and week out,” Andrew Mathias said. “It’s a very powerful endorsement for the building.”

SL Green also launched its own coworking brand in One Vanderbilt, Altus Suites, and is set to open its observation deck in the fall. Chef Daniel Boulud is also gearing up to open an 11,000-square-foot restaurant, Le Pavillon, there this month.

While the 1,401-foot-tall One Vanderbilt might dominate the conversation, it’s hardly the only thing SL Green has done the past year.

“The past 12 to 14 months have been among the toughest times we’ve had to work through, to live through,” Holliday said. “And, in a funny way, it turned out to be among our best years ever, in terms of achievement [and] in terms of helping out New York City.”

In November, SL Green sold 410 Tenth Avenue for $953 million to The 601W Companies, at the time the priciest sale of a U.S. office building during the pandemic. The landlord sold off several other assets as it continues its strategy to buy back stock. SL Green also broke ground on the 1.4 million-square-foot Flatiron District office tower One Madison Avenue and started demolition for Giorgio Armani’s new flagship at 760 Madison Avenue.

And Holliday said he is particularly proud of the company’s Food1st non-profit launched during the pandemic. It partners with local restaurants to deliver meals for frontline workers and people in need.—N.R.