History
Citicorp, the largest bank in the United States at the time,[1] announced plans to build an office tower in Long Island City in Queens in 1985.[11][12] It was commissioned by the bank to supplement its nearby headquarters at Citicorp Center in Manhattan, and partly financed by the sale of more than 30 floors at Citicorp Center – a deal The New York Times described as "unusual".[13] Because of its proximity to LaGuardia Airport, the plans for the tower were reviewed by the Federal Aviation Administration.[14] The project was approved by the New York City Planning Commission in 1986,[15] and construction began by 1987. Turner Construction was the lead contractor, and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill was the architectural firm.[16] The construction site was occupied by a parking lot at the time, and was previously the site of a hospital.[17]
The tower, officially known as One Court Square, opened in 1989 as the tallest building in the borough, surpassing the North Shore Towers in Glen Oaks.[18][6] It cost $250million.[19] The development benefitted from city subsidies, including tax incentives and concessions on utilities, that aimed to persuade Manhattan firms considering a move to New Jersey to stay in the city.[20] The tax breaks amounted to $97million over 13 years.[19] In exchange, Citicorp funded a $8.5million improvement to the nearby Court Square–23rd Street station and created a 16000 ft2 plaza for public use. It also built a 750-car parking garage nearby.[13] Citicorp initially intended to lease part of the building, but eventually decided to occupy the entire space itself.[13]
At the time, the tower stood alone in a mainly industrial district; The New York Times described it in 2009 as "marooned amid a sea of low-lying warehouses and auto repair shops",[22] and a contemporary review of the building noted that because of its isolation, "we perceive this tower with greater intensity than almost any other skyscraper in the city."[1] The reception in the neighborhood was mixed: many residents feared it would spur overcrowding and rent increases, while businesses were pleased with the prospects for further economic development in the neighborhood.[18][13][19] Five years later, the area was little changed.[23]
Citigroup sold the building in 2005 to Reckson Associates Realty Corporation for $470million, while maintaining a 15-year lease.[24][20][25] A second building, Two Court Square, was constructed for Citigroup on an adjacent lot in 2007, though plans for a third building were scrapped and a commercial district that the city envisioned would coalesce around the new construction did not materialize, in part due to the Great Recession.[20]
In 2012, Brooklyn real estate investors Joel Schreiber and David Werner purchased One Court Square for $481 million from Stephen L. Green's SL Green and JPMorgan Asset Management.[26] In 2014, it was purchased by Savanna Realty.[27] In 2020, the Citi logo was removed from the building and replaced with a logo of telecommunications company Altice USA, whose headquarters had been in the building since 2017. Citi's lease expired in the same year.[28]
In 2021, Consolidated Edison performed a $5million retrofit of the building's HVAC systems for greater energy efficiency, described as the largest such retrofit of an office building in the company's history.[29]
