• Will Undertake Full-Scale Redevelopment of Vacant 17-Story Office Building

NEW YORK (November 7, 2006) — LCOR, the national real estate development and investment company, has signed a 75-year ground lease for 545 Madison Avenue, and will soon commence full-scale redevelopment of the 17-story office building.

The property is located at the corner of 55th Street and Madison Avenue in the Plaza District, one of Manhattan’s most coveted business venues. Presently vacant, the site totals 140,000 square feet in rentable commercial space, with floor plates ranging from 4,900 to 9,300 square feet in size. The ground floor and cellar hold nearly 10,000 square feet of retail space.

Comprehensive site redevelopment will include a gut rehabilitation, the replacement of the existing façade with a state-of-the-art glass curtain wall recladding, and the installation of new, state-of-the-art electrical and mechanical systems and elevators.

“We are transforming this structure into a fully contemporary, Class A office building," said David A. Sigman, senior vice president of LCOR. "A completely modernized 545 Madison Avenue will meet demand for boutique space in a prime Midtown location, an offering not readily available in this part of Manhattan."

Because tenant leases had expired at the end of September, the building is presently unoccupied, allowing LCOR to create an entirely new structure working outward from the building's concrete and steel framework.

"Without having to work around occupied space, we have the rare opportunity to recreate a Manhattan office building from scratch," said Sigman. "Because the building is vacant, LCOR can proceed according to a natural construction cycle to completely redevelop 545 Madison as a first-rate, 21st-century office building that will appeal to a solid tenant roster of boutique firms.”

Ground lease holders include LCOR, Lehman Brothers and BlackRock, who together entered into the new lease with Marx Realty and Improvement Company. Bill Shanahan and John Powers of CBRE acted as the owner’s broker.

LCOR is tapping the New York City architecture firm of Moed de Armas & Shannon to carry out the redevelopment initiative. With construction expected to begin in early 2007, tenancy is anticipated in the spring of 2008.

Peter Riguardi, Frank Doyle and Lisa Keill of Jones Lang LaSalle will serve as leasing agents for the building's commercial component. Leasing efforts are expected to focus on such small-space users as boutique financial services companies and law firms.

Constructed in 1955, 545 Madison Avenue features 50 feet of frontage on Madison Avenue and 125 feet along East 55th Street.

LCOR is a national real estate development, investment and asset management company that specializes in multifamily, commercial and mixed-use development, public/private development and transit-oriented development. With projects throughout the United States, LCOR has more than $8 billion in developments completed, under construction or in pre-development. LCOR has developed more than 16 million square feet of commercial space nationally. The firm developed the $1.4-billion Terminal 4 at JFK International Airport.