Tishman Speyer signs 150-year Chrysler Building ground lease with Cooper Union

What happened

Cooper Union, the college that has owned the land under the Chrysler Building since 1901, has finalised a new ground lease (a long-term lease of the land under a building) with Tishman Speyer, according to Commercial Observer on 7 October 2026. The lease is due to last 150 years, the publication reported.

Tishman Speyer has agreed to invest US$235m in upgrades in addition to its ground lease payments, Commercial Observer reported. The terms of the lease, such as the monthly payments, were not disclosed, so the upgrade figure cannot be set against the rent Cooper Union will receive.

The renovation plan centres on the 77-storey tower's vacant space. According to Commercial Observer, 75 per cent of the building's vacant and soon-to-be vacant space would become pre-built office suites (ready-fitted offices).

The lease matters to the college because of tuition. Commercial Observer said the lease gives Cooper Union the ability to restore full-tuition scholarships to all of its undergraduate students.

In a notice of 27 September 2024, the college said it had built important reserves and surpluses over the previous seven years as part of its financial turnaround work.

The deal follows the eviction of the previous tenant. Commercial Observer said the college evicted RFR Holding, the company of Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs, in November 2024, after a default on US$21m in ground-rent payments.

Cooper Union's own 2024 notice said the ground lessee had stopped making monthly ground lease payments.

Commercial Observer added that Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board is also an investor in the repositioning effort, backing Tishman Speyer.