One Chase Manhattan Plaza is about to get an epic makeover.
The property’s new owner — the real-estate arm of Chinese company Fosun International, which bought the 2.2 million-square-foot tower last year for $725 million — is spending between $100 million and $200 million on renovations, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Gone are the black granite walls under the tower’s Elevated Plaza, the newspaper reported. Instead, Fosun is planning to add panes of glass and more retail space.
Rendering of The Plaza at 28 Liberty (Credit: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill)
Fosun is planning to show its plans to the public during a Community Board meeting on Thursday night.
The new plans call for more than 175,000 square feet of retail space. Fosun is also planning to add more seating to the open space to accommodate the growing residential population in the area. Fosun is also planning to turn 130,000 square feet — or three levels below the ground floor — into shops, according to the Journal.
“When this building was constructed in 1961, lower Manhattan was a business district with only 5,000 residents,” Erik Horvat, managing director at Fosun Property Holdings and the former director of the World Trade Center redevelopment at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told the newspaper. “Lower Manhattan has changed. It’s a different place.” [WSJ] — Claire Moses