The tiny holdout building in the middle of Macy’s is back in view (ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com)

189 points by donohoe 4 days ago

hdgvhicv 14 hours ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Dollar_Corner

In September 2021, Macy's accused the billboard's owner Kaufman Realty of negotiating to lease the space to an online retailer before Macy's most recent lease expired that August. Macy's claimed that the lessee was almost certainly Amazon and filed for an injunction preventing Kaufman from leasing the space to a competitor. Macy's claimed that a 1963 agreement prohibited such a lease "forever" and that an Amazon billboard would be highly visible during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

kevinwang 7 hours ago

So was the injunction successful?

dlgeek 3 hours ago

You nerd-snipped me into digging through court records.

The case was 655669/2021 in the New York County Supreme Court (the Supreme Court is the name for the first-tier courts in NY state).

Docket: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/DocumentList?docketI...

The parties were in settlement talks and postponed the hearing on an injunction and then settled and dismissed.

abanana 2 hours ago

justincormack 13 hours ago

The London version of this is Spiegelhalters, in the middle of the ornate facade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickhams_(department_store)

rapnie 9 hours ago

Amsterdam's Victoria Hotel near Central Station also has a holdout embedded in its edifice.

https://old.reddit.com/r/SpiteHouse/comments/of5cqh/in_the_c...

angulardragon03 6 hours ago

Wow, I walk there all the time and I’ve never noticed

talkin 2 hours ago

scottconover 11 hours ago

That wiki photo is hilarious!

egorfine 9 hours ago

Is it more profitable to lease the space for banners as opposed to lease the apartments to tenants?

donohoe 8 hours ago

Yes, think about the less overhead from dealing with people and building issues. Take a look at the Times Square too.

skinfaxi 9 hours ago

Probably since you don't have to deal with tenant issues for one.

hinkley 3 hours ago

People underestimate the value of predictability.

hiAndrewQuinn 8 hours ago

Land value tax solves this

rr808 8 hours ago

Not really. looks like they pay nearly $2mil a year every year right now already. You can look up Block 810 Lot 40 here: https://a836-pts-access.nyc.gov/care/search/commonsearch.asp...

Aurornis 6 hours ago

The funniest thing about internet land value tax discourse is all of the people who don’t realize that land is already taxed in cities like this.

As the other commenter discovered, the tax rate is very significant for this property.

But the core proposition doesn’t make sense, either. A land value tax wouldn’t force a property to be used for a less profitable use case. A LVT forces the property to be used for the most profitable use case because the tax would prevent people from using it for less profitable activities because that’s the only way to pay the high LVT.

arjie 5 hours ago

scotty79 5 hours ago

dyauspitr 7 hours ago

Land value tax is an evil concept. Having to pay for land you already own is insane. Also, people already pay property tax, why should there be an additional tax.

wildzzz 7 hours ago

egorfine 7 hours ago

dn3500 14 hours ago

They have an odd definition of "middle".

mbStavola 15 hours ago

I used to work one block from there. For years I got off at that station and walked past the building but had no idea it was hiding something like that. Amazing!

iambateman 2 hours ago

What do you call a building that can only be seen once in a hundred years?

99% Invisible.

Trasmatta 6 hours ago

It's a nice Saturday afternoon, and I'm literally in Midtown right now, wandering around after walking down 5th Avenue (it's shut down to cars today for "Summer Streets"). Perfect chance to walk over and take a look at this. I love city oddities like this.

EDIT: got a great view of it. Fascinating that this dilapidated structure has just been hiding in plain sight all these years.

ungreased0675 4 days ago

That building looks horrible, do people live there?

amelius 8 hours ago

You know your facade sucks when it looks better with a giant billboard covering it.

nkrisc 11 hours ago

Based on the pictures I can’t imagine anyone legally living there.

I don’t know for sure, but I imagine usable windows are required for living spaces.

timr 9 hours ago

Every bedroom of a rental is required to have a window in New York.

But in this part of town, the advertising rights alone probably vastly exceed any possible revenue from renting the building for residential use. It’s kind of like the tiny building in Times Square that has the ball on top. I don’t think people even realize there’s a building behind all of the billboards, but it was original New York Times building.

nkrisc 7 hours ago

jen20 7 hours ago

hinkley 3 hours ago

The ground floor is a Sunglass Hut from the looks of things. Then the first floor looks like it might be offices, or a fancy apartment. The other floors could be storage space for the tenants and the landlord.

My first instinct was perhaps they raised the ceiling in the first floor to occupy some of the second. But thinking on it more, high ceilings without windows to go with them usually don't make the space feel that much bigger. You can spend up to a couple feet on crown molding but beyond that you're well into diminishing returns.

lorreyfum 5 hours ago

Mandamus will tax it

wahnfrieden 9 hours ago

There are several such buildings in NYC in prime real estate areas that are kept empty in order to prioritize billboard revenue.

ianm218 8 hours ago

Source? My understanding is this is no longer true

wahnfrieden 8 hours ago

dylan604 8 hours ago

hdgvhicv 14 hours ago

Ground floor is a shop, pepper floors are basically empty.

dotancohen 7 hours ago

^pepper^upper

Though I have replaced pepper control arms on a vintage Mustang once. Rust does that.

UltraSane 10 hours ago

Not on the really rough looking floors. It has been used as a huge billboard for a very long time.

mc32 9 hours ago

I was thinking the same question. It certainly looks unoccupied -I can’t imagine people living in the other side but then again it _could_ be very well maintained and decorated on the inside despite the eyesore looks on the outside. Moreover since the lower floors are commercial it must mean that at least the upper floors are keeping out the elements.

nephihaha 13 hours ago

I know. I was expecting something easier on the eye. Maybe a century of being behind billboards has wrecked it. The 1906/1907 photographs look much better.

hinkley 3 hours ago

Neglect and dust. With the billboards up nobody not even the rain has been washing the facade.

q3k 16 hours ago

No, they just shop there.

Terretta a day ago

“Hidden by billboards for over 100 years, the tiny holdout building in the middle of Macy’s is back in view‎”

Initial word of headline necessary for comprehension

Barbing 2 hours ago

Fixed (from “by billboards for over 100 years …” or something, previously)

fnord77 9 hours ago

a farm. in manhattan

sigh

donohoe 7 hours ago

There are still farms in Manhattan and other parts of NYC. From the few I know off-hand:

- The Farm at the Javits Center (Hudson Yards) is a working rooftop farm, greenhouse, and has an orchard.

- On Randall’s Island there is a farm with raised beds, greenhouses, rice paddies, and also an orchard.

- Battery Urban Farm (Lower Manhattan) - not sure of this counts but its an operating educational farm that grows produce.

There are others.

margalabargala 8 hours ago

Why do you think "sheep meadow" in Central Park is called that?

Do you think Manhattan has always been skyscrapers?

JoeAltmaier 4 hours ago

"The Bronx" was "The Bronks", a farm owned by a Dutch family and a popular picnic destination before it was subdivided and built over.

quickthrowman 7 hours ago

I don’t understand. Do you think the Dutch came to Manhattan in the 1620s and found it fully built out with streets and skyscrapers?

bitwize 7 hours ago

Mamdani should expropriate the building and do something charitable with it.