Chrysler Trylons Sit on Separate RFR-Linked Lots, $9.2M on Paper

The Chrysler Building’s leasehold sale did not settle everything around it, and the New York Post reported on Oct. 11 that questions about the landmark’s future remain. City records add one piece the headlines blur: the glass-and-retail Trylons beside the tower are not part of the tower’s lot at all. They are two parcels owned by a separate RFR-linked company.

Why it matters

We could not retrieve the Post article, so we attribute its account and do not repeat details we could not check. We also found no public listing or recorded sale of the Trylons. What the record does show is who holds what. PLUTO lists the tower lot, block 1297 lot 23, under 405 Lexington LLC. The Trylons sit on lots 27 and 31, owned by R&S Trylons LLC.

That split matters because Tishman Speyer’s new 150-year ground lease, covered in our Oct. 8 report, concerns the tower and Cooper Union’s land. Anyone buying the Trylons buys fee-owned ground next door, with no ground rent to Cooper Union implied by the tower’s lease.

The numbers

A 2019 deed moved both lots from TS Trylons LLC to R&S Trylons LLC for $75.5 million on April 5, 2019. A same-day $20 million agreement tied R&S Trylons to CMTG Lender 39 LLC. That lender assigned its interest to CMTG JP Finance LLC on July 12, 2024.

The two lots hold 32,631 square feet of low-rise building, 10,721 at 145 East 42nd and 21,910 at 155 East 42nd. The city assesses them at $9.2 million combined, about 5% of the tower lot’s $168.9 million. Assessed value is not market value, but the gap shows how much of the corner’s worth sits in the skyscraper.

What’s next

Watch for a recorded deed, mortgage satisfaction or new lender assignment on lots 27 and 31, which would be the first public proof of any Trylons transaction. ACRIS search is blocked to us, so we used city open data that ends in September. More: New York →