Developers Plan to Convert 5 Times Square From Office to Residential
The proposed $95 million project will be spearheaded by Apollo Global Management, RXR, and SL Green. They have filed for about 660,000 square feet of residential space and 248,000 square feet of commercial space, city records reviewed by Straus News confirmed.
| 31 Jan 2025 | 10:55
Three developers have filed a $95 million plan to transform an office building known as 5 Times Square, pictured above, into a residential building. It now prominently houses Roku, the streaming giant. (
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Three behemoth developers have unveiled a $95-million plan to transform 5 Times Square, currently a prominent 38-story office building located on Seventh Avenue between West 41st and West 42nd streets, into a residential complex. It will reportedly feature 942 new apartments, making it one of the largest commercial-to-residential conversion plans to be made public in New York City.
The conversion plan–spearheaded by Apollo Global Management, with buy-in from RXR and SL Green–was filed with the Department of Buildings in late December, after the Commercial Observer first reported that it was in the works as of last August. The Observer also reported that the developers’ plan will take advantage of a $1.3-billion loan issued by Apollo and JP Morgan in September 2022, which was recapitalized last November in order to allow loan funds to go toward the conversion.
The plan features 659,968 square feet of residential space and 247,592 square feet of commercial space, city records reviewed by Straus News confirmed. Gensler, the largest architecture firm in the world in terms of revenue and number of architects employed, is listed as the designer for the planned conversion. Upon completion, the building’s name would be changed from 5 Times Square to 592 Seventh Avenue.
Apollo reportedly plans on taking advantage of a tax break that passed last October, known as 467-m, while completing the project. Essentially, the tax break is awarded if 25 percent of the proposed apartments are deemed affordable.
The most high-profile commercial tenant currently operating out of the building is Roku, the video streaming company, which signed a lease for 240,000 square feet of space in 2022. They occupy the top eight floors of the building. Eighty percent of the building’s remaining square footage is vacant, according to the real estate site 6SqFt, which added that Roku plans on staying put for now. Miniso, a popular Chinese variety-store chain, also operates a store out of the building.
The current glass building, which was designed by the NYC-based firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) in 2002, was originally developed by Boston Properties. It was constructed to house Ernst & Young, the massive professional services and accounting firm. Their lease expired in 2022, the same year that Roku moved in.
According to a “2024 Mid-Year Sales” report by Ariel Property Advisors, buildings ripe for office-to-residential conversions made up 25 percent of all NYC development sales in the first half of last year. The largest such plan yet, which was filed last year, involves the developer Metro Loft planning a conversion of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s former world HQ at 219-235 E. 42nd St. into 1,500 units of rental housing.
Office-to-residential conversions in Manhattan provide good PR for private developers as NYC faces an acute housing crisis, exemplified by an extremely low 1.4 percent apartment vacancy rate. For its part, the city government successfully pushed through a “City of Yes” zoning overhaul last year, which officials say will create 82,000 new units of housing in NYC over the span of 15 years.