Tishman Speyer has officially signed a $225 million ground lease for the Chrysler Building and is planning an array of upgrades, the real estate firm announced on October 7. Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board will serve as lead investor.

The real estate giant struck a 150-year-deal with The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art—the university which owns the underlying land—to operate the iconic 77-story skyscraper, which is located at 405 Lexington Avenue. Tishman Speyer previously owned the building beginning in the late 1990s, before offloading the remainder of their stake in the property by 2019.

“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. “We are thrilled to lead this beloved building’s next chapter.”

It was reported earlier this year that Cooper Union was considering handing the lease back to Speyer, with the latter announcing that his company was in “advanced talks” to take over the lease in February. According to The Real Deal, they had edged out hefty competitors such as SL Green for first consideration.

RHR Holdings, the previous leaseholder, was evicted by Cooper Union after a legal battle last year; they owed $32.5 million worth of back rent in 2025. The university had been counting on income from the lease to sustain low costs for students, as well as pay back a $175 million loan that went towards erecting a new building on their Astor Place campus.

Cooper Union has owned the land under the building since 1902, which the university explicitly describes as “a permanent source of financial support for the school’s mission.”

“The significance of this agreement is ultimately about what it makes possible for generations of Cooper Union students,” Cooper Union President Steven W. McLaughlin said of the new deal.

”For more than a century, the Chrysler Building has helped sustain Peter Cooper’s vision of opening access to education by removing financial barriers,” he added. “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.”

John Ruth, the university’s Vice President of Finance & Administration, explicitly mentioned that the deal with Tishman Speyer would go towards “work to advance and sustain full-tuition scholarships for all undergraduates.” Tuition had been entirely free at the school until 2014.

Tishman Speyer said that they plan on turning the skyscraper into “Manhattan’s most distinctive new boutique office building,” including by pre-building “thoughtfully designed, ready-to-occupy suites.”

Namely, the building’s 61st floor—famous for its gargoyles modeled after the hood ornament on the 1929 Plymouth Model U—will be reserved for a lounge with outdoor access and dining options. The building’s underground arcade, meanwhile, will include “fitness and wellness” amenities.

The deal has been framed by Tishman Speyer as providing much-needed space in a red-hot office market, with the firm pointing to estimates of low availability in the vicinity of Grand Central, which the Chrysler Building towers above.

At the time of its opening in May, 1930, the Chrysler Building became the tallest building in the world at 1,046 ft. in height, with its spire setting the record by surpassing its then-tallest competitor at 40 Wall Street (which had been completed just months earlier and which today is owned by the Trump Organization.)

The Chrysler Building record was itself not long-lived. The Empire State Building broke ground on what had been the original Waldorf Astoria Building on March 17, 1930 and its intended height was a closely guarded secret while the Chrysler Building was still adding floors. The Empire State Building completed construction on May 1, 1931, surpassing Chrysler’s record by roughly 204 feet.

The Empire State Building held the title as the tallest building in the world for 40 years until it was surpassed in 1971 by the original World Trade Center. The new World Trade Center at 1,776 ft, is the tallest building the in the United States but only the seventh tallest in the world.

The Chrysler Building today is the 13th tallest building in New York City—exactly tied with the New York Times Building—and the 20th tallest building in the United States, right below 53W53, a luxury condo building at 53 W. 53rd St.

Tishman Speyer says that the Midtown office market is booming and it tends to renovate to restore the building’s former grandeur.